Polyesters carrying polar main-chain ester linkages exhibit distinct material properties for diverse applications and thus play an important role in today’s plastics economy. It is anticipated that they will play an even greater role in tomorrow’s circular plastics economy that focuses on sustainability, thanks to the abundant availability of their biosourced building blocks and the presence of the main-chain ester bonds that can be chemically or biologically cleaved on demand by multiple methods and thus bring about more desired end-of-life plastic waste management options. Because of this potential and promise, there have been intense research activities directed at addressing recycling, upcycling or biodegradation of existing legacy polyesters, designing their biorenewable alternatives, and redesigning future polyesters with intrinsic chemical recyclability and tailored performance that can rival today’s commodity plastics that are either petroleum based and/or hard to recycle. This review captures these exciting recent developments and outlines future challenges and opportunities. Case studies on the legacy polyesters, poly(lactic acid), poly(3-hydroxyalkanoate)s, poly(ethylene terephthalate), poly(butylene succinate), and poly(butylene-adipate terephthalate), are presented, and emerging chemically recyclable polyesters are comprehensively reviewed.

中文翻译：

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循环塑料经济中的可回收和（生物）可降解聚酯

带有极性主链酯键的聚酯在不同的应用中表现出独特的材料特性，因此在当今的塑料经济中发挥着重要作用。预计它们将在注重可持续性的未来循环塑料经济中发挥更大的作用，这要归功于它们的生物来源构建块的丰富可用性以及可根据需要进行化学或生物裂解的主链酯键的存在通过多种方法，从而带来更理想的报废塑料废物管理方案。由于这种潜力和前景，人们开展了大量的研究活动，旨在解决现有传统聚酯的回收、升级再造或生物降解问题，设计其生物可再生替代品，并重新设计具有内在化学可回收性和定制性能的未来聚酯，这些聚酯可以与当今的商品塑料相媲美。石油基和/或难以回收。这篇评论捕捉了这些令人兴奋的最新发展，并概述了未来的挑战和机遇。介绍了传统聚酯、聚乳酸、聚3-羟基烷酸酯、聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯、聚丁二酸丁二醇酯和聚己二酸对苯二甲酸丁二醇酯的案例研究，以及新兴的化学可回收聚酯都经过全面审查。