Supporting data for Chemically Recyclable Linear and Branched Polyethylenes Synthesized from Stoichiometrically Self-balanced Telechelic Polyethylenes

These files contain primary data along with associated output from instrumentation supporting all results reported in "Chemically Recyclable Linear and Branched Polyethylenes Synthesized from Stoichiometrically Self-balanced Telechelic Polyethylenes" by Jang et al. The abstract of this document is the following, High-density polyethylene (HDPE) is a widely used commercial plastic due to its excellent mechanical properties, chemical resistance, and water vapor barrier properties. However, less than 10% of HDPE is mechanically recycled, and chemical recycling of HDPE is challenging due to inherent strength of the carbon-carbon backbone bonds. Here, we report chemically recyclable linear and branched HDPE with sparse backbone ester groups synthesized from transesterification of the telechelic polyethylene macromonomers. Stoichiometrically self-balanced telechelic polyethylenes underwent transesterification polymerization to produce the PE-ester samples with high number average molar masses up to 111 kg/mol. Moreover, transesterification polymerization of the telechelic polyethylenes and the multifunctional diethyl 5-(hydroxymethyl)isophthalate generated branched PE-esters. Thermal and mechanical properties of the PE-esters were comparable to commercial HDPE and tunable through control of the ester content in the backbone. In addition, branched PE-esters showed higher levels of melt-strain hardening compared to linear versions. The PE-ester was depolymerized into telechelic macromonomers through straightforward methanolysis and the resulting macromonomers could be effectively repolymerized to generate high molar mass recycled PE-ester samples. This is a new and promising method for synthesizing and recycling high-molar-mass linear and branched PE-esters, which are competitive with HDPE and have easily tailorable properties.