Sustainable synthesis of CO2-derived polycarbonates from d-xylose

Synthetic transformation of D-xylose into a four-membered cyclic ether allows for reactions with carbon dioxide (CO2) leading to linear polycarbonates by either a one-step ring-opening copolymerisation (ROCOP) directly, or by sequential isolation of a preformed six-membered cyclic carbonate followed by ring-opening polymerisation (ROP).