Yingluo Zhao

Abstract Transforming abundant but inert CO2 into useful polymers has been pursued since the 1960s (ref. 1) and has typically been achieved by copolymerization with a reactive comonomer, aided by a catalyst, which can address both thermodynamic constraints and high kinetic barriers associated with CO2 fixation and incorporation2,3,4,5. However, making polyesters remains a challenge as alternating copolymerization of CO2 with alkenes is thermodynamically infeasible6.

1 Introduction Poly(3-hydroxyalkanoate)s (PHAs) have attracted growing interest for applications ranging from biomedical devices and packaging materials to sustainable plastics, often attributed to their renewability, biodegradability, and biocompatibility [1-8].