In this third iteration of the JACS Au Outstanding Paper Award, we recognize an excellent paper drawn from a pool of nominations created by the Early Career Advisory Board (ECAB). From July 2024 to June 2025, the ECAB nominated selected papers as part of the ECAB Selects program. In this program, ECAB members highlight recent JACS Au publications that caught their eye, with their nominations shared with the editorial team and subsequently the broader community through ACS Publications social media accounts.

This year, the paper from University of Delaware researchers entitled “Toward Circular Recycling of Polyurethanes: Depolymerization and Recovery of Isocyanates,” was selected as the 2025 JACS Au Outstanding Paper (DOI: 10.1021/jacsau.4c00013). Led by Professors LaShanda Korley and Thomas Epps III, the team reported a depolymerization strategy to nearly completely regenerate isocyanates from thermoplastic and thermoset polyurethanes (PUs), further demonstrating they could resynthesize PUs using the recovered isocyanates. Mild conditions employing organoboron Lewis acids to depolymerize PUs directly to isocyanates enabled an efficient, circular process.

In recognition of the authors’ selection for this award, the corresponding authors of the winning paper will receive a certificate and a voucher that waives open access publication costs for a future paper published in any of the ACS Au journals. Congratulations to the whole team of authors for this recognition!

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