Polymers that can return to their building blocks are a step towards a more sustainable materials economy. This process, called chemical recycling to monomers (CRM), cuts down on waste and precursor resources. Whereas a typical polymer material or plastic might be incinerated or tossed to landfill at the end of its life, a polymer capable of CRM can be intentionally recovered back into its monomers, ready to be repolymerized to virgin-quality material in an efficient circular system.

Existing polytrithiocarbonate syntheses fall short in producing recyclable, functionally diverse materials. Polytrithiocarbonates from CS2 and episulfides are too thermally stable to be broken back down to their original compounds, whereas the reliance of ring-opening polymerizations on certain kinds of cyclic monomers limits structural and functional tunability.