Sustainable polymers derived from plant oils

来自植物油的可持续聚合物

• 批准号: 2585422
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Loughborough University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2585422
• 关键词: Sustainable; polymers; derived; plant; oils

Global plastics production is still dominated by petrochemical based polymers; however it is well established that crude oil is not a sustainable resource. Therefore as a society we must begin to move towards a circular economy driven by renewable energy and resources and a key to this is the development of biopolymers. Biopolymers is a blanket term that covers both bio-based polymers and biodegradable polymers, where bio-based polymers are polymers derived from renewable biomass sources and biodegradable polymers are polymers capable of being decomposed (though they can be petrochemical or bio-based). This proposal will focus on the synthesis of bio-based polymers as a sustainable alternative to petrochemical based polymers. As with any emerging technology the key to the success of bio-based polymers is the ability to produce materials of comparable quality to those made from conventional methods in a cost-effective manner. It should be noted that whilst the development of sustainable feedstocks addresses the issue of the source of our polymers, attention should be paid to the processing and end-of-life of these materials. Processes that are dependent on the use of toxic agents and materials that have no thought paid to their end-of-life disposal are simply substituting one problem for another and are not addressing the overall goal of developing more sustainably produced polymers.In this project monomers will be extracted from the plant oils via direct transesterification, thereby avoiding complex multistep chemical reactions that do not adhere to green chemistry or circular economy principles. Following this the monomers will be polymerised using a controlled radical polymerisation (CRP) technique. CRP techniques are advantageous as they can polymerise a wide variety of monomers and produce a range of compositions and polymer architectures. One such CRP technique is RAFT (reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer) polymerisation, a technique that has been demonstrated to be versatile and enables good control over molecular weights and dispersity, which can improve the polymers properties and performance. The process also enables a range of structures to be produced including well defined copolymers.Polymers synthesised will be investigated for their use in applications such as biomedical, laundry and personal care products (e.g. hair care and cosmetics) as well as adhesives and coatings.

全球塑料生产仍以石化聚合物为主;然而，众所周知，原油不是一种可持续资源。因此，作为一个社会，我们必须开始走向由可再生能源和资源驱动的循环经济，其中一个关键是生物聚合物的发展。生物聚合物是一个涵盖生物基聚合物和生物可降解聚合物的总括术语，其中生物基聚合物是源自可再生生物质来源的聚合物，生物可降解聚合物是能够分解的聚合物（尽管它们可以是石化或生物基）。该提案将重点关注生物基聚合物的合成，作为石化基聚合物的可持续替代品。与任何新兴技术一样，生物基聚合物成功的关键是能够以具有成本效益的方式生产与传统方法制成的材料质量相当的材料。应该注意的是，虽然可持续原料的开发解决了我们聚合物的来源问题，但应注意这些材料的加工和使用寿命。依赖于使用有毒试剂和材料的工艺，没有考虑到它们的报废处理，只是用一个问题代替另一个问题，并没有解决开发更可持续生产的聚合物的总体目标。在这个项目中，单体将通过直接酯交换从植物油中提取，从而避免不符合绿色化学或循环经济原则的复杂的多步化学反应。在此之后，单体将使用受控自由基聚合（CRP）技术进行聚合。CRP技术是有利的，因为它们可以聚合多种单体并产生一系列组合物和聚合物结构。一种这样的CRP技术是RAFT（可逆加成-断裂链转移）聚合，该技术已被证明是通用的，并且能够良好地控制分子量和分散性，这可以改善聚合物的性质和性能。该工艺还可以生产一系列结构，包括明确定义的共聚物。将研究合成的聚合物在生物医学、洗衣和个人护理产品（如护发和化妆品）以及粘合剂和涂料中的应用。