Sustainable polymers derived from plant oils

全球塑料生产仍以石化基聚合物为主；然而，众所周知，原油不是一种可持续的资源。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称，其中生物基聚合物是来自可再生生物质来源的聚合物，生物可降解聚合物是能够被分解的聚合物（尽管它们可以是石化或生物基）。该建议将重点放在合成生物基聚合物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经济有效的方式生产出与传统方法生产的材料质量相当的材料。应该指出的是，虽然可持续原料的发展解决了聚合物来源的问题，但应该注意这些材料的加工和寿命终止。依赖于使用有毒物质和材料而不考虑其最终使用寿命处理的工艺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，从而避免了不符合绿色化学或循环经济原则的复杂的多步化学反应。随后，单体将使用控制自由基聚合（CRP）技术进行聚合。CRP技术是有利的，因为它们可以聚合各种各样的单体，并产生一系列的组合物和聚合物结构。一种这样的CRP技术是RAFT（可逆加成-破碎链转移）聚合，这种技术已经被证明是通用的，可以很好地控制分子量和分散性，从而可以改善聚合物的性能。该工艺还可以生产一系列结构，包括定义良好的共聚物。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）以及粘合剂和涂料等应用中的用途。

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.