Please contact the symposium organizers with questions.

To combat the pressing environmental challenges associated with the consumption of polymeric materials by the growing world population, material scientists have identified three key strategies: Reducing chemical-related impact of polymer preparation through green chemistry approaches. Resilience, to prolong the polymer material’s functional lifetime and facilitate repurposing, thereby reducing the need for raw materials while degradability allows for adapting the material’s lifetime to its functional lifecycle and eliminate the side-effects of discarded materials. The symposium contributions should focus on the three aforementioned strategies and related aspects for enhancing the sustainability of polymer materials. The first part of the symposium will present innovative synthetic pathways that utilize bio-based and non-toxic starting materials, reduce energy consumption, and produce fewer by-products. It will also include biotechnologically produced polymers and address the corresponding challenges of scaling-up required to make a meaningful impact. The second part of the symposium will focus on pathways to prolong the lifetime of polymers, and discuss for instance self-healing materials, non-toxic stabilizing additives and other strategies to avoid or deal with material damages. The third part of the symposium will focus on polymer materials that can degrade via hydrolysis or specific external stimuli. Here, approaches for lifetime prediction and analysis of environmental impact, both experimental and theoretical, are of high relevance. Also, challenges associated with processing of degradable and recycled materials into functional devices will be discussed.

Topics will include:

• Novel green polymer synthesis routes, e.g. NIPUs, polycarbonates
• Polymer synthesis for capturing CO2
• Polymers from biological sources for large-scale production and advanced applications
• Green processing of polymers
• Design of green and degradable polymers for additive manufacturing
• New hydrolytically degradable polymers and their applications
• Polymers degrading in response to specific environmental stimuli
• Polymer degradation by enzymes
• Self-repairing and self-replenishing materials
• Green polymer stabilizers and their impact on polymer lifetimes
• Strategies to avoid or mitigate material damage
• Recycling and upcycling of degradable polymers
• Mechanistic studies of polymer degradation and lifetime prediction
• Material life-cycle and carbon footprint analysis

Invited Speakers:

• Zhibin Guan (University of California, Irvine, USA)
• Christine Jerome (University of Liège, Belgium)
• Julia Kalow (Northwestern University, USA)
• LaShanda T.J. Korley (University of Delaware, USA)
• Bronwyn Laycock (University of Queensland, Australia)
• Karin Odelius (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden)
• Daniela Pappalardo (University of Sannio, Italy)
• H. Jerry Qi (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)
• Kei Saito (Kyoto University, Japan)
• Takamasa Sakai (The University of Tokyo, Japan)
• Kotaro Satoh (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan)
• Brent Sumerlin (University of Florida, USA)
• John Torkelson (Northwestern University, USA)
• Takashi Uneyama (Nagoya University, Japan)
• Marek Urban (Clemson University, USA)

Symposium Organizers