Sustainable polymers from renewable resources through click and multicomponent reactions

Abstract

The ever-increasing concerns due to energy crises, climate change, increasing drought and dwindling water resources, and environmental pollution caused by the petrochemical-based polymers cry out the birth of a new era; The age of sustainability. We need to take action and find sustainable chemical strategies to bring smart solutions to these problems. For sustainability in macromolecular science, less hazardous, straightforward, robust, and low-waste-producing methods are required. At that point, click chemistry routes shine like stars in this arena. The unique features of prominent click chemistry methods, such as high reactivity, high efficiency, low energy consumption, low waste generation, and simplicity, make them in perfect harmony with the principles of “Green Chemistry”. The combination of biomass-derived renewable monomers and click chemistry will be the future of polymer science. Renewable resources are the bricks that will pave the way to more sustainable polymers, and click chemistry is the glue that binds these bricks together. This review covers the most cutting-edge advancements in click chemistry utilized to synthesize macromolecular structures from bio-based building blocks. Herein, we provide an exhaustive summary of click chemistry strategies for polymer synthesis from renewable resources. We have also included some studies on multicomponent reactions (MCRs), which display high efficiency and atom economy.