Degradation of polypropylene carbonate through plasmonic heatingElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Table of data presented in Fig. 1b. Details of determination of quantum efficiency of Sudan IV. See DOI: 10.1039/c3nr01498c

We report the thermal degradation of a solid film of polypropylene carbonate, driven by the photothermal effect of gold nanoparticles. We provide characterization of the products of this chemical reaction and use the known activation barrier for this chemical reaction to discuss the temperatures obtained in the film. In addition, we report the efficiency of the reaction as a function of nanoparticle concentration and find nanoparticles to be significantly more effective than an organic dye at driving this reaction. We report and characterize a clean, high barrier, thermal chemical reaction occurring in the solid state, driven by the photothermal effect of gold nanoparticles. Irradiation of a film of polypropylene carbonate and gold nanoparticles, results in rapid depolymerization to give the propylene carbonate monomer.