Highly efficient hydrogenative depolymerisation of polycaprolactone to 1,6-hexanediol

Garima Saini; Alejandra Sophia Lozano Perez; Niklas von Wolff; Amit Kumar

doi:10.1039/D5SU00729A

Highly efficient hydrogenative depolymerisation of polycaprolactone to 1,6-hexanediol

Garima Saini
, Alejandra Sophia Lozano Perez
, Niklas von Wolff
, Amit Kumar^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Chemistry

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

We report here our study on the development of an efficient process to make 1,6-hexanediol from the hydrogenation of polycaprolactone assisted by ethanolysis. Using a ruthenium SNS pincer catalyst, a record high turnover number of 19 600 with 98% yield of 1,6-hexanediol is obtained at 80 °C and 60 bar H₂ pressure. The reported method has environmental advantages over the conventional process for the production of 1,6-hexanediol, which emits a significant amount of nitrous oxide greenhouse gas.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	829-835
Number of pages	7
Journal	RSC Sustainability
Volume	4
Issue number	2
Early online date	2 Dec 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1039/D5SU00729A
Publication status	Published - 11 Feb 2026

Access to Document

10.1039/D5SU00729ALicence: CC BY

Saini_2025_RSCS_Highly-efficient-hydrogenative-depolymerisation_CC
© 2025 The Author(s). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
Final published version, 648 KBLicence: CC BY

Handle.net

Persistent link

PolyCat: Mechanism and Machine Led Catalyst Discovery for a Circular Economy (NoWaste)
Kumar, A. (PI)
UKRI (EU)
1/08/23 → 31/07/28
Project: Standard
New Directions for the Sythesis: New Directions for the Synthesis and Degradation of Renewable and Recyclable Plastics Using Homogeneous Catalytic (De)hydrogenation
Kumar, A. (PI)
Medical Research Council
1/08/22 → 31/07/26
Project: Fellowship

Highly efficient Hydrogenative depolymerisation of Polycaprolactone to 1,6-hexanediol (dataset)
., G. (Creator), Lozano Perez, A. S. (Creator) & Kumar, A. (Creator), University of St Andrews, 27 Dec 2025
DOI: 10.17630/6a910f9b-befc-4b74-81a7-6c6cfb08741e
Dataset

File

Cite this

@article{9678f39dddc345709a15f5bc3f538019,

title = "Highly efficient hydrogenative depolymerisation of polycaprolactone to 1,6-hexanediol",

abstract = "We report here our study on the development of an efficient process to make 1,6-hexanediol from the hydrogenation of polycaprolactone assisted by ethanolysis. Using a ruthenium SNS pincer catalyst, a record high turnover number of 19 600 with 98\% yield of 1,6-hexanediol is obtained at 80 °C and 60 bar H2 pressure. The reported method has environmental advantages over the conventional process for the production of 1,6-hexanediol, which emits a significant amount of nitrous oxide greenhouse gas.",

author = "Garima Saini and \{Lozano Perez\}, \{Alejandra Sophia\} and \{von Wolff\}, Niklas and Amit Kumar",

note = "Funding: This research was funded by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (MR/W007460/1) and an EPSRC grant (EP/Y005449/1).",

year = "2026",

month = feb,

day = "11",

doi = "10.1039/D5SU00729A",

language = "English",

volume = "4",

pages = "829--835",

journal = "RSC Sustainability",

issn = "2753-8125",

publisher = "Royal Society of Chemistry",

number = "2",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Highly efficient hydrogenative depolymerisation of polycaprolactone to 1,6-hexanediol

AU - Saini, Garima

AU - Lozano Perez, Alejandra Sophia

AU - von Wolff, Niklas

AU - Kumar, Amit

N1 - Funding: This research was funded by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (MR/W007460/1) and an EPSRC grant (EP/Y005449/1).

PY - 2026/2/11

Y1 - 2026/2/11

N2 - We report here our study on the development of an efficient process to make 1,6-hexanediol from the hydrogenation of polycaprolactone assisted by ethanolysis. Using a ruthenium SNS pincer catalyst, a record high turnover number of 19 600 with 98% yield of 1,6-hexanediol is obtained at 80 °C and 60 bar H2 pressure. The reported method has environmental advantages over the conventional process for the production of 1,6-hexanediol, which emits a significant amount of nitrous oxide greenhouse gas.

AB - We report here our study on the development of an efficient process to make 1,6-hexanediol from the hydrogenation of polycaprolactone assisted by ethanolysis. Using a ruthenium SNS pincer catalyst, a record high turnover number of 19 600 with 98% yield of 1,6-hexanediol is obtained at 80 °C and 60 bar H2 pressure. The reported method has environmental advantages over the conventional process for the production of 1,6-hexanediol, which emits a significant amount of nitrous oxide greenhouse gas.

U2 - 10.1039/D5SU00729A

DO - 10.1039/D5SU00729A

M3 - Article

SN - 2753-8125

VL - 4

SP - 829

EP - 835

JO - RSC Sustainability

JF - RSC Sustainability

IS - 2

ER -

Highly efficient hydrogenative depolymerisation of polycaprolactone to 1,6-hexanediol

Abstract

Access to Document

Handle.net

Fingerprint

Projects

PolyCat: Mechanism and Machine Led Catalyst Discovery for a Circular Economy (NoWaste)

New Directions for the Sythesis: New Directions for the Synthesis and Degradation of Renewable and Recyclable Plastics Using Homogeneous Catalytic (De)hydrogenation

Datasets

Highly efficient Hydrogenative depolymerisation of Polycaprolactone to 1,6-hexanediol (dataset)

Cite this