Synthesis of Bio‐Based Polyurethanes from Jojoba Oil

Abstract

Jojoba grows easily in harsh conditions and is the only plant species known to use liquid wax esters as a primary seed storage reserve. Jojoba oil is composed by two mono unsaturated hydrocarbon chains linked by an ester moiety and represents 50% of the weight of seeds. Hence, this atypical oil is, for the first time, dedicated to the synthesis of innovative polymer materials. Novel partially biobased polyurethanes materials are obtained with various structures. New biobased diol is first achieved by addition of mercaptoethanol by thiol‐ene coupling on jojoba oil and characterized by 1H NMR and 13C NMR. The functionalized oil is used to synthesize polyurethane prepolymers by catalyst‐free reaction with various diisocyanates: 1,6‐hexamethylene diisocyanate and 4,4‐methylene diphenyl diisocyanate. After the addition of chain extenders, the obtained polyurethane materials are characterized by 1H NMR, TGA, DSC, and DMA analyses. Various PUs are obtained in terms of flexibility and thermal stability.Practical Applications: The synthesized jojoba oil‐based PUs exhibit a good flexibility. Hence, these biobased PUs could replace petroleum‐based polyurethanes in industry and particularly as coatings, binders or compounds for automotive and aircraft industries.Innovative greener polyurethanes are achieved from jojoba oil with one‐step thiol‐ene reaction and various diisocyanates.