Plant oil based radically polymerizable monomers for sustainable polymers

Abstract

We have focuses our studies on the synthesis of novel biobased monomers designed for free radical polymerization which could increase the biomass carbon content pursuing to equal or improve the performance of existing polymers from non-renewable sources. Cardanol, which is a natural phenolic oil, is issued from Cashew Nutshell Liquid (CNSL), a non-edible renewable resource, co-produced from cashew industry in large commercial volumes (1Mt p.a.). Cardanol is non-toxic and particularly suitable for the addition of aromatic renewable resources in polymers and materials. We recently reported various routes for the synthesis of di- and poly-functional building blocks derived from cardanol thereafter used in polymer syntheses. We especially synthesized a new radically polymerizable cardanol-derived monomer. Hence, we synthesized cardanol-based aromatic latex by radical aqueous emulsion (and miniemulsion) polymerization. We also synthesized UV-reactive cardanol-derived latex for styrene-free coating applications. Vegetable oils and their fatty acids (FAs) derivatives have become the most promising alternative solution to design performant bio-based polymers. However, considering the poor reactivity of the internal unsaturation of FAs through radical process, most currently available synthesis of monomers reported in literature are limited to polycondensation. Therefore, the objective of our work was to synthesize monomers from fatty acids bearing reactive function through radical process and evaluate their resulting methacrylate polymers as viscosity modifiers in various oils such as mineral or vegetable oils.