Commercial plastics are essential to our society; however, they persist in the environment due to their chemical inertness. Plastic pollution causes serious environmental problems, necessitating new, sustainable strategies to break them down. Developing degradable materials that will decompose in the environment is of immense interest. However, these materials must also be of commercial relevance, and easily degradable polymers often do not display the necessary physical properties. This perspective will highlight one of these polymer classes: non-alternating polyketones. Historical perspective on the original synthesis and recent advances for synthesizing these materials highlight the longstanding interest in these polymers. Additionally, post-polymerization modifications and photodegradation studies will provide context for the potential applications of these interesting polymers.

商用塑料对我们的社会至关重要；然而，由于其化学惰性，它们在环境中持续存在。塑料污染会造成严重的环境问题，需要新的可持续战略来解决这些问题。开发可在环境中分解的可降解材料引起了人们的极大兴趣。然而，这些材料还必须具有商业相关性，而易降解的聚合物通常不表现出必要的物理性能。这一观点将突出显示这些聚合物类别之一：非交替聚酮。对原始合成的历史回顾和合成这些材料的最新进展凸显了人们对这些聚合物的长期兴趣。此外，聚合后改性和光降解研究将为这些有趣的聚合物的潜在应用提供背景。