Pub Date : 2026-01-06DOI: 10.1038/s41893-025-01728-0
Frank W. Geels, Allan Dahl Andersen
While negative sustainability effects of cross-system interactions are well studied, positive cross-system cascades are less well understood. This Perspective shows that these cascade dynamics are already important in net-zero electrification transitions and will probably become more important in the coming years due to positive interactions between core innovations (including solar-photovoltaics, wind power, batteries, heat pumps, electric furnaces and green hydrogen), a key resource (net-zero electricity) and various complementary innovations. This Perspective discusses 12 cross-system cascade processes across technology, resource, actor and institutional dimensions. The Perspective also provides actionable policy recommendations for further stimulating positive cross-system cascades and accelerating net-zero transitions. Positive cross-system cascades in sustainability transitions are underexplored, despite their potential to accelerate net-zero pathways. This Perspective analyses such cascades in the context of electrification, identifying 12 mechanisms across sociotechnical systems and offering policy recommendations to amplify their impact.
{"title":"Cross-system cascades as drivers of the electrification pathway in net-zero transitions","authors":"Frank W. Geels, Allan Dahl Andersen","doi":"10.1038/s41893-025-01728-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-025-01728-0","url":null,"abstract":"While negative sustainability effects of cross-system interactions are well studied, positive cross-system cascades are less well understood. This Perspective shows that these cascade dynamics are already important in net-zero electrification transitions and will probably become more important in the coming years due to positive interactions between core innovations (including solar-photovoltaics, wind power, batteries, heat pumps, electric furnaces and green hydrogen), a key resource (net-zero electricity) and various complementary innovations. This Perspective discusses 12 cross-system cascade processes across technology, resource, actor and institutional dimensions. The Perspective also provides actionable policy recommendations for further stimulating positive cross-system cascades and accelerating net-zero transitions. Positive cross-system cascades in sustainability transitions are underexplored, despite their potential to accelerate net-zero pathways. This Perspective analyses such cascades in the context of electrification, identifying 12 mechanisms across sociotechnical systems and offering policy recommendations to amplify their impact.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"9 4","pages":"501-508"},"PeriodicalIF":27.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147735132","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-05DOI: 10.1038/s41893-025-01734-2
Elisabeth Allen, Claudia E. Henninger, Jane Wood
Although researchers try to understand the physical and chemical impacts of fibre-shaped microscopic pollution, use of inconsistent terminology hinders collective progress. Here we call for a unified language as the essential foundation for coordinated research across disciplines and effective mitigation.
{"title":"Unravelling the threads of microfibre terminology","authors":"Elisabeth Allen, Claudia E. Henninger, Jane Wood","doi":"10.1038/s41893-025-01734-2","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-025-01734-2","url":null,"abstract":"Although researchers try to understand the physical and chemical impacts of fibre-shaped microscopic pollution, use of inconsistent terminology hinders collective progress. Here we call for a unified language as the essential foundation for coordinated research across disciplines and effective mitigation.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"9 3","pages":"346-348"},"PeriodicalIF":27.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147570505","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-05DOI: 10.1038/s41893-025-01729-z
Nathan J. Cook, Krister P. Andersson, Michelle E. Benedum, Tara Grillos, Birendra K. Karna, Dil B. Khatri, Dilli P. Poudel
Decentralized approaches to natural resource governance can promote conservation while reducing poverty in the Global South. However, the local benefits under decentralized governance are often unequal, reflecting extant social inequalities. There is a lack of rigorous evidence from national-scale studies showing how decentralization programmes affect inequality compared with what is observed in decentralization’s absence, and extant theory leads to competing hypotheses about such effects. We use data from a large-scale forestry-sector decentralization programme in Nepal during 2001–2011 to test general theories regarding the effects of such initiatives on inequality. We analyse census micro-data from two nationwide censuses, which we merge with administrative data on the implementation of decentralization and analyse through a two-way fixed-effects estimation approach. We find evidence suggesting that Nepal’s programme delivers significant poverty-alleviating benefits to the dominant ethnic and caste groups and comparatively smaller benefits to members of marginalized minority groups, resulting in apparent local increases in rural inequality associated with the programme. Thus, even relatively progressive programmes, such as Nepal’s, may lead to potential trade-offs between poverty alleviation, environmental conservation and inequality outcomes. Improved compliance with equity provisions may help to equalize effects, as could more substantial targeted benefits. Decentralized natural resource governance is thought to aid conservation and reduce poverty, but its heterogeneous local effects are under-explored. A study in Nepal shows that forest governance decentralization reduces poverty but the benefits are greater for dominant ethnic and caste groups compared with minority ones.
{"title":"Effects of forestry decentralization on rural inequality in Nepal","authors":"Nathan J. Cook, Krister P. Andersson, Michelle E. Benedum, Tara Grillos, Birendra K. Karna, Dil B. Khatri, Dilli P. Poudel","doi":"10.1038/s41893-025-01729-z","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-025-01729-z","url":null,"abstract":"Decentralized approaches to natural resource governance can promote conservation while reducing poverty in the Global South. However, the local benefits under decentralized governance are often unequal, reflecting extant social inequalities. There is a lack of rigorous evidence from national-scale studies showing how decentralization programmes affect inequality compared with what is observed in decentralization’s absence, and extant theory leads to competing hypotheses about such effects. We use data from a large-scale forestry-sector decentralization programme in Nepal during 2001–2011 to test general theories regarding the effects of such initiatives on inequality. We analyse census micro-data from two nationwide censuses, which we merge with administrative data on the implementation of decentralization and analyse through a two-way fixed-effects estimation approach. We find evidence suggesting that Nepal’s programme delivers significant poverty-alleviating benefits to the dominant ethnic and caste groups and comparatively smaller benefits to members of marginalized minority groups, resulting in apparent local increases in rural inequality associated with the programme. Thus, even relatively progressive programmes, such as Nepal’s, may lead to potential trade-offs between poverty alleviation, environmental conservation and inequality outcomes. Improved compliance with equity provisions may help to equalize effects, as could more substantial targeted benefits. Decentralized natural resource governance is thought to aid conservation and reduce poverty, but its heterogeneous local effects are under-explored. A study in Nepal shows that forest governance decentralization reduces poverty but the benefits are greater for dominant ethnic and caste groups compared with minority ones.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"9 3","pages":"385-394"},"PeriodicalIF":27.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-025-01729-z.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147570509","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-02DOI: 10.1038/s41893-025-01712-8
Bessie Noll, Tobias S. Schmidt, Florian Egli
Governments worldwide collected US$923 billion in fuel taxes in 2023, revenues at risk with the transition to electric vehicles, especially in lower-income countries. Policymakers should anticipate and assess their own domestic exposure and develop policies to recover enough revenues from electric vehicles as the transition progresses.
{"title":"Bridging the fuel tax revenue gap in the move to electric mobility","authors":"Bessie Noll, Tobias S. Schmidt, Florian Egli","doi":"10.1038/s41893-025-01712-8","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-025-01712-8","url":null,"abstract":"Governments worldwide collected US$923 billion in fuel taxes in 2023, revenues at risk with the transition to electric vehicles, especially in lower-income countries. Policymakers should anticipate and assess their own domestic exposure and develop policies to recover enough revenues from electric vehicles as the transition progresses.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"9 2","pages":"192-193"},"PeriodicalIF":27.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-025-01712-8.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147275136","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-02DOI: 10.1038/s41893-025-01721-7
Bessie Noll, Tobias S. Schmidt, Florian Egli
As electric vehicle adoption accelerates globally, fuel tax revenues decline, exposing government budgets without a proposed replacement tax on electric vehicles. We estimate fuel tax transition exposure across 168 countries, demonstrating that relative exposure, in percentage of total government revenues, varies substantially by income level. Our analysis finds that global public revenues from fuel taxes totalled approximately US$900 billion in 2023. Crucially, we show that lower-income countries face disproportionately high exposure, experience frequent debt crises and possess limited institutional capacity to respond, potentially necessitating international support. As electric vehicle adoption rises, governments face shrinking fuel tax revenues without clear replacement policies. This study estimates this revenue loss across 168 countries and finds that lower-income nations are the most exposed and may need international support to manage the fiscal risks.
{"title":"The electric vehicle transition and vanishing fuel tax revenues","authors":"Bessie Noll, Tobias S. Schmidt, Florian Egli","doi":"10.1038/s41893-025-01721-7","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-025-01721-7","url":null,"abstract":"As electric vehicle adoption accelerates globally, fuel tax revenues decline, exposing government budgets without a proposed replacement tax on electric vehicles. We estimate fuel tax transition exposure across 168 countries, demonstrating that relative exposure, in percentage of total government revenues, varies substantially by income level. Our analysis finds that global public revenues from fuel taxes totalled approximately US$900 billion in 2023. Crucially, we show that lower-income countries face disproportionately high exposure, experience frequent debt crises and possess limited institutional capacity to respond, potentially necessitating international support. As electric vehicle adoption rises, governments face shrinking fuel tax revenues without clear replacement policies. This study estimates this revenue loss across 168 countries and finds that lower-income nations are the most exposed and may need international support to manage the fiscal risks.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"9 2","pages":"207-211"},"PeriodicalIF":27.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-025-01721-7.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147275132","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-02DOI: 10.1038/s41893-025-01723-5
Xiuming Zhang, Yi Sun, Yujing Gao, Chen Wang, Xia Liang, Shu Kee Lam, Shaohui Zhang, Wilfried Winiwarter, Hans J. M. van Grinsven, Mark A. Sutton, Deli Chen, Baojing Gu
Excess ammonia (NH3) emissions from human activities pose severe threats to global ecosystems and human health. Although urgent control of NH3 emissions is needed, a comprehensive quantification of mitigation strategies and their cost-effectiveness is lacking on a global scale. Here we employ a multi-model framework to evaluate 32 mitigation measures across 7 sectors in 185 countries. Our analysis reveals that strategic implementation of technological and non-technological (policy and behavioural) measures could reduce global NH3 emissions by up to 60% at an average cost of US$7.4 per kilogram of NH3. The estimated implementation cost of US$274 ± 116 billion is far outweighed by the resulting environmental, health and resource benefits, which we indicatively estimate at US$722 ± 302 billion. Priority action in China and India could yield the largest net gains, whereas Sub-Saharan Africa faces limited cost-effectiveness owing to structural and economic barriers. Future scenarios indicate that ambitious implementation pathways could halve NH3 emissions by 2050, whereas weak climate action and inadequate nitrogen regulations would drive continued emission growth, leading to substantial environmental deterioration. These findings highlight both the feasibility and urgency of integrating NH3 control into multi-objective policies for food security, air quality and sustainable development. Man-made ammonia emissions have harmful effects on human health and ecosystems, yet global mitigation strategies remain underexploited. A study now finds that emissions could be halved cost-effectively by 2050 through targeted and prioritized measures, with benefits far outweighing costs.
{"title":"Halving global ammonia emissions with cost-effective measures","authors":"Xiuming Zhang, Yi Sun, Yujing Gao, Chen Wang, Xia Liang, Shu Kee Lam, Shaohui Zhang, Wilfried Winiwarter, Hans J. M. van Grinsven, Mark A. Sutton, Deli Chen, Baojing Gu","doi":"10.1038/s41893-025-01723-5","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-025-01723-5","url":null,"abstract":"Excess ammonia (NH3) emissions from human activities pose severe threats to global ecosystems and human health. Although urgent control of NH3 emissions is needed, a comprehensive quantification of mitigation strategies and their cost-effectiveness is lacking on a global scale. Here we employ a multi-model framework to evaluate 32 mitigation measures across 7 sectors in 185 countries. Our analysis reveals that strategic implementation of technological and non-technological (policy and behavioural) measures could reduce global NH3 emissions by up to 60% at an average cost of US$7.4 per kilogram of NH3. The estimated implementation cost of US$274 ± 116 billion is far outweighed by the resulting environmental, health and resource benefits, which we indicatively estimate at US$722 ± 302 billion. Priority action in China and India could yield the largest net gains, whereas Sub-Saharan Africa faces limited cost-effectiveness owing to structural and economic barriers. Future scenarios indicate that ambitious implementation pathways could halve NH3 emissions by 2050, whereas weak climate action and inadequate nitrogen regulations would drive continued emission growth, leading to substantial environmental deterioration. These findings highlight both the feasibility and urgency of integrating NH3 control into multi-objective policies for food security, air quality and sustainable development. Man-made ammonia emissions have harmful effects on human health and ecosystems, yet global mitigation strategies remain underexploited. A study now finds that emissions could be halved cost-effectively by 2050 through targeted and prioritized measures, with benefits far outweighing costs.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"9 2","pages":"247-259"},"PeriodicalIF":27.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-025-01723-5.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147275113","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-30DOI: 10.1038/s41893-025-01716-4
Tobias Brosch
Supporting the shift towards more climate-friendly lifestyles needs legally enforced climate policies, but enforcement may result in undesired boomerang effects if policies are designed poorly. Now a study illustrates how behavioural insights can improve climate policy design.
{"title":"Behaviourally informed climate policy","authors":"Tobias Brosch","doi":"10.1038/s41893-025-01716-4","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-025-01716-4","url":null,"abstract":"Supporting the shift towards more climate-friendly lifestyles needs legally enforced climate policies, but enforcement may result in undesired boomerang effects if policies are designed poorly. Now a study illustrates how behavioural insights can improve climate policy design.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"9 2","pages":"183-184"},"PeriodicalIF":27.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147275123","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-30DOI: 10.1038/s41893-025-01715-5
Katrin Schmelz, Samuel Bowles
Conventional approaches to policy design often neglect the plasticity of citizens’ beliefs and values upon which policy effectiveness and political sustainability depend. A consequence, by way of illustration, is that environmental policies may crowd out pre-existing green values. Our representative survey of 3,306 Germans finds that enforced restrictions to promote carbon-neutral lifestyles would trigger strong negative responses because they ‘restrict freedom’. This is true even among those who would adopt green lifestyles when voluntary, thus possibly undermining support for green political movements. These results combined with the long-term political consequences of the polarizing reactions to Covid mandates motivate a new approach to climate policy design. We set aside the conventional economic model assuming self-interested citizens, in which there could be no green values to crowd out. Instead, we propose a dynamic approach recognizing that (1) to succeed, essential policies including bans, carbon taxes and the promotion of new technologies must be both implementable and politically sustainable, entailing (2) a critical role for citizens’ green values, which (3) may be either diminished or cultivated, depending on policy design. Climate policies based on conventional economic models that assume that citizens are entirely self-interested may trigger negative responses, even among those who support green lifestyles. A more dynamic approach is proposed, accounting for the importance of green values that may be undermined or enhanced by policy.
{"title":"An empirically based dynamic approach to sustainable climate policy design","authors":"Katrin Schmelz, Samuel Bowles","doi":"10.1038/s41893-025-01715-5","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-025-01715-5","url":null,"abstract":"Conventional approaches to policy design often neglect the plasticity of citizens’ beliefs and values upon which policy effectiveness and political sustainability depend. A consequence, by way of illustration, is that environmental policies may crowd out pre-existing green values. Our representative survey of 3,306 Germans finds that enforced restrictions to promote carbon-neutral lifestyles would trigger strong negative responses because they ‘restrict freedom’. This is true even among those who would adopt green lifestyles when voluntary, thus possibly undermining support for green political movements. These results combined with the long-term political consequences of the polarizing reactions to Covid mandates motivate a new approach to climate policy design. We set aside the conventional economic model assuming self-interested citizens, in which there could be no green values to crowd out. Instead, we propose a dynamic approach recognizing that (1) to succeed, essential policies including bans, carbon taxes and the promotion of new technologies must be both implementable and politically sustainable, entailing (2) a critical role for citizens’ green values, which (3) may be either diminished or cultivated, depending on policy design. Climate policies based on conventional economic models that assume that citizens are entirely self-interested may trigger negative responses, even among those who support green lifestyles. A more dynamic approach is proposed, accounting for the importance of green values that may be undermined or enhanced by policy.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"9 2","pages":"212-221"},"PeriodicalIF":27.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-025-01715-5.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147275138","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-29DOI: 10.1038/s41893-025-01724-4
Mathieu L. Lepage, Emmanuel Gras
Mixed plastics are hard to upcycle because they are not all miscible with each other and deliver blends of poor quality when melted together. Now reactive additives help to make these components compatible when processed at 180 °C.
{"title":"Upcycling incompatible plastics","authors":"Mathieu L. Lepage, Emmanuel Gras","doi":"10.1038/s41893-025-01724-4","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-025-01724-4","url":null,"abstract":"Mixed plastics are hard to upcycle because they are not all miscible with each other and deliver blends of poor quality when melted together. Now reactive additives help to make these components compatible when processed at 180 °C.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"9 2","pages":"185-187"},"PeriodicalIF":27.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147275130","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mechanical recycling of postconsumer plastics, especially incompatible mixed plastics, is often a downcycling process, resulting in brittle materials. Here we introduce a multi-arm universal dynamic crosslinker (UDC) platform to enable mechanical upcycling of incompatible mixed plastics. The topological UDC platform is based on readily accessible diazomalonate carbene precursors joined by dynamic siloxane linkages. It creates in situ star-like multiblock copolymer compatibilizing architectures from mixed plastics, irrespective of polymer types, and is compatible with reactive extrusion re/processing. Such architectures are credited for not only drastically enhancing creep resistance by two to four orders of magnitude but also improving the extensibility of polymer blends by up to 100-fold. By adjusting the topological UDC architecture and loading, broad property tunability between thermoset- and thermoplastic-like materials is achieved from mechanical upcycling of mixed apolar/polar plastics. This work provides a viable approach to improve the circularity of plastics. Mechanical recycling of incompatible mixed plastics is challenging, as it often downcycles plastics into brittle materials. Here the authors develop a multi-arm topological universal dynamic crosslinker platform to enable mechanical upcycling of incompatible mixed plastics.
{"title":"Topological universal dynamic compatibilization enhances recycling of mixed plastics","authors":"Yunpeng Gao, Xavier Westworth, Ethan C. Quinn, Jiyun Nam, Eugene Y.-X. Chen","doi":"10.1038/s41893-025-01688-5","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-025-01688-5","url":null,"abstract":"Mechanical recycling of postconsumer plastics, especially incompatible mixed plastics, is often a downcycling process, resulting in brittle materials. Here we introduce a multi-arm universal dynamic crosslinker (UDC) platform to enable mechanical upcycling of incompatible mixed plastics. The topological UDC platform is based on readily accessible diazomalonate carbene precursors joined by dynamic siloxane linkages. It creates in situ star-like multiblock copolymer compatibilizing architectures from mixed plastics, irrespective of polymer types, and is compatible with reactive extrusion re/processing. Such architectures are credited for not only drastically enhancing creep resistance by two to four orders of magnitude but also improving the extensibility of polymer blends by up to 100-fold. By adjusting the topological UDC architecture and loading, broad property tunability between thermoset- and thermoplastic-like materials is achieved from mechanical upcycling of mixed apolar/polar plastics. This work provides a viable approach to improve the circularity of plastics. Mechanical recycling of incompatible mixed plastics is challenging, as it often downcycles plastics into brittle materials. Here the authors develop a multi-arm topological universal dynamic crosslinker platform to enable mechanical upcycling of incompatible mixed plastics.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"9 2","pages":"260-270"},"PeriodicalIF":27.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147275114","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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