ARS | Publication request: Polymers prepared from plant oils in liquid carbon dioxide

Submitted to: International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: May 19, 2010
Publication Date: December 15, 2010
Citation: Liu, Z. 2010. Polymers prepared from plant oils in liquid carbon dioxide [abstract]. International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Meeting. p. 96.

Technical Abstract: Recently, attention has been focused on the preparation of polymers in environmentally friendly media. Supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) is a promising candidate. The low toxicity of CO2 and lack of toxic solvent residues in the final products make CO2 an attractive medium for the synthesis of polymers and biomaterials. Current interest in cheap biodegradable polymeric materials has encouraged the development of such materials from readily available inexpensive renewable resources. Among synthesized biobased products from agricultural resources, plant oils are useful raw materials in the synthesis of polymers. In this work, we report the boron trifluoride diethyl etherate (BF3-OEt2) catalyzed ring-opening polymerization of epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) in liquid carbon dioxide in an effort to develop useful biobased polymers. The resulting polymers were characterized by FTIR spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), 1H NMR, 13C NMR, solid state 13C NMR spectroscopy, and gel permeation chromatography (GPC). The results indicated that ring-opening polymerization of ESO occurred at mild conditions. The formed materials were highly crosslinked polymers. The glass transition temperatures of these polymers ranged from -11.9 deg C to -24.1 deg C. TGA results showed that polymers were thermally stable at temperatures lower than 200 deg C and significant decomposition mainly occurred above 340 deg C.