Bio-based self-assembled polymers from renewable resources

聚合物是我们日常生活中使用最广泛的材料之一，用于许多不同的产品。其中一些是显而易见的，比如用于包装的商品塑料，以及其他不那么明显的因素，例如电子产品、化妆品、药物输送、纳米医学等等。聚合物为许多问题提供了解决方案，但环境问题既存在于聚合物起始材料的来源，也存在于其在生命周期结束时的废物管理。今天生产的大多数合成聚合物都是从化石燃料中使用石油衍生的化学原料制成的。然而，石油是一种有限的资源，估计在未来50年内将耗尽。因此，聚合物生产的关键挑战之一是转向可再生资源以用于其制造。对于某些应用，需要对聚合物的结构和组成进行精确控制，并且可以使用先进的聚合物合成技术来获得明确的共聚结构。这里值得关注的是，嵌段共聚物是具有不同组成的不同链段的聚合物。当块或段具有不同的性质时，它们可以具有有趣的自组装行为，应用于粘合剂、涂层、膜、生物医学(例如，药物输送)、光刻和纳米反应器。由于近年来聚合物科学的进步，嵌段共聚物现在正在商业化。然而，这些商业化的嵌段共聚物也来自不可再生的石油原料。由于嵌段共聚物的有趣性能和在增值应用领域的用途以及日益增长的环境问题，人们对嵌段共聚物的兴趣与日俱增，开发可再生嵌段共聚物是本项目将解决的一个重要挑战。在本项目中，我们将从可再生资源中制备性能可调的新聚合物，这些聚合物可用于生物医学(即药物输送)、涂料、粘合剂和个人护理产品等一系列应用。通过使用从生物质中提取的原料，聚合物将从可再生资源中制备。我们将研究使用天然生物聚合物和植物油来制备新的聚合物。通过改变植物油和生物聚合物的起始原料和共聚物的结构，嵌段共聚物的性能将发生变化，从而在广泛的应用中具有潜在的用途。在新共聚物的整个开发过程中，在选择使用哪种反应条件时也将考虑可持续性。总而言之，这一雄心勃勃的项目将利用天然生物聚合物和从可再生资源中提取的单体的组合，提供具有明确结构的新型可再生嵌段共聚物。

Polymers are one of the most widely used materials in our day to day lives and are used in so many different products. Some of these are obvious like commodity plastics used in packaging, and other less so, for instance in electronics, cosmetics, drug delivery, nanomedicine to name a few. Polymers provide solutions to many problems, but environmental concerns exist about both the source of polymer starting materials and their waste management at end of life. Most synthetic polymers generated today are made from fossil fuels using petroleum-derived chemical feedstocks. However, petroleum is a finite resource estimated to be depleted within the next 50 years. Therefore, one of the key challenges with polymer production is to move towards renewable resources for their manufacture.For some applications precise control over the polymer architecture and composition is required and advanced polymer synthesis techniques can be used to achieve well-defined copolymer structures. Of interest here, block copolymers are polymers with distinct segments of differing composition. They can have interesting self-assembly behaviour when the blocks or segments have differing properties, with applications as adhesives, coatings, membranes, biomedical (e.g., drug delivery), lithography and nanoreactors. Due to advancements in polymer science in recent years, block copolymers are now being commercialised. However, these commercialised block copolymers are also derived from non-renewable petroleum feedstocks. Due to increased interest in block copolymers due to their interesting properties and use in value added application areas, and growing environmental concerns, the development of renewable block copolymers is an important challenge that this project will address.In this project we will prepare new polymers from renewable resources, with tuneable properties, which can be used in a range of applications including biomedical (i.e., drug delivery), paints, adhesives, and personal care products. By using starting materials derived from biomass, the polymers will be prepared from renewable resources. We will investigate using naturally occurring biopolymers, and vegetable oils to prepare new polymers. Through varying the vegetable oil and biopolymer starting materials and the structures of the copolymers, properties of the block copolymers will be varied allowing for potential use in a broad range of applications. Throughout the development of the new copolymers sustainability will be also considered when choosing which reaction conditions to use. In summary, this ambitious project will deliver new renewable block copolymers with well-defined structures using a combination of naturally occurring biopolymers and monomers extracted from renewable resources.