Source: Rutgers University, 11/26/25
Yuwei Gu, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology in the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences, was hiking through Bear Mountain State Park in New York when inspiration struck. If nature can build polymers that serve their purpose and then disappear, Gu reasoned, perhaps human-made plastics could be made to do the same. Gu already knew that natural polymers contain tiny helper groups built into their structure that make chemical bonds easier to break when the time is right. In a study published in Nature Chemistry, Gu and a team of Rutgers scientists have shown that by borrowing this principle from nature, they can create plastics that break down under everyday conditions without heat or harsh chemicals.