I-Corps: Commercialization Feasibility for a Polymer Technology Based on Renewables

研究小组开发的植物油聚合物技术具有一些主要属性，将为可再生材料带来新的应用机会。首先，每个分子的官能团数量非常多，如双键、羟基和环氧化物，这已被证明极大地降低了固化速度，并提高了热固性树脂的玻璃化转变温度、模数、拉伸强度、硬度和耐化学性等性能。此外，共聚还被用来提高聚合物的热机械性能，赋予聚合物理想的溶解/分散特性，以及在聚合物中引入理想的反应性官能团。有几种新型聚合物在某些应用中达到或超过了石化材料的性能。目前，大约90%的化学品是基于化石资源的。由于化石资源的有限性质、石油价格的剧烈波动以及对环境的担忧，社会对利用可再生资源进行目前使用石化产品的应用越来越感兴趣。这种可再生聚合物技术的成功进一步开发有可能减少社会对化石资源的依赖，同时还可以减少与石化材料相关的环境问题。

The plant oil-based polymer technology developed by the research group possesses some major attributes that will lead to new application opportunities for renewable materials. First, the number of functional groups, such as double bonds, hydroxyl groups, and epoxide groups, per molecule is very high, which has been shown to dramatically reduce cure rates and increase properties such as glass transition temperature, modulus, tensile strength, hardness, and chemical resistance of thermosets. In addition, copolymerization has been used to increase polymer thermomechanical properties, impart desirable solubility/dispersibility characteristics, and to introduce desirable reactive functional groups to polymers. Several of the novel polymers have been shown to meet or exceed the performance of petrochemical-based materials for some applications.At present, about 90% of all chemicals are based on fossil resources. Due to the finite nature of fossil resources, dramatic fluctuations in the price of oil, and concerns about the environment, society has taken a greater interest in the use of renewable resources for applications that currently utilize petrochemicals. Successful further development of this renewable polymer technology has the potential to reduce societies' dependence of fossil resources, while also reducing environmental issues associated with petrochemical-based materials.