Chapter 11 - Catalytic synthesis of biosourced polyesters from epoxides and cyclic anhydrides

Abstract

The contribution of polyolefin-type polymers to the development of society must be recognized, although their chemical inertness is causing environmental problems affecting plants, animals, and even human health. In January 2018, the European Union released its vision for a more sustainable plastics industry to be achieved by 2030. In fact, the word of the year 2018 was “microplastic,” reflecting the importance that this problem has acquired. Polyesters are a kind of polymers that can be used for a wide variety of applications due to their mechanical properties, their degradation to benign products and their high biocompatibility. The use of renewable resources is a challenge to be tackled in the coming decades. Thus, the development of new catalytic processes that give rise to a greater number of bioderived and biodegradable polyesters with different properties and with enhanced biodegradation in natural environments has become a current need. In this chapter, the ring-opening copolymerization of epoxides and cyclic anhydrides is presented as one of the most promising processes to achieve this objective. The large variety of epoxides and cyclic anhydrides commercially available allows the synthesis of a great number of aliphatic or semiaromatic polyesters derived from natural sources, such as terpenes or vegetable oils.