Renewable resources for polymers for use in personal care applications

人类的头发自然是自我润滑的，因为头发纤维的最上层，即表皮层，拥有一层约3纳米厚的涂层(18MEA)。18个MEA分子通过硫酯键与表层蛋白质结构中的半胱氨酸残基结合。其主要目的是合成一种润滑剂，以弥补或彻底取代因漂白或其他处理而损坏的发束失去的18MEA。一种类似于18MEA的润滑剂将由疏水性甲基丙烯酸酯单体合成，聚合过程通过商业上使用的自由基聚合在天然衍生油中进行。为了与联合利华的“自然性”理念保持一致，第二个目标是生产比联合利华目前使用的硅基润滑剂(二甲基醇和二甲基酮)6更环保的产品。因此，所需的疏水性甲基丙烯酸酯单体将通过将现有的甲基丙烯酸酯与来自天然脂肪酸水解液的长链醇进行官能化来生产。如上所述，本项目中CCTP使用的溶剂将是天然油，以符合

Human hair is naturally self-lubricated due the topmost layer of the hair fibres, the epicuticle, possessing a coating of (18 MEA) roughly 3 nm thick. The 18 MEA molecules are bound by thioester linkages to cysteine residues in the protein structure of the epicuticle. The primary aim is to synthesise a lubricating agent for the purpose of compensating for, or outright replacing, lost 18 MEA from hair strands damaged from bleaching or other treatments. A lubricating agent analogous to 18 MEA will be synthesised from hydrophobic methacrylate monomers, with polymerisation occurring via commercially used free radical polymerisation in naturally derived oils. In keeping with Unilever's philosophy of "naturalness", a secondary aim is to produce more eco-friendly products than the silicone based lubricants currently utilised by Unilever (dimethiconols and dimethicones)6. As such, the hydrophobic methacrylate monomers required will be produced by functionalising existing methacrylates with long chain alcohols derived from the hydrolysis of naturally occurring fatty acids. As stated above, the solvents used for CCTP in this project will be natural oils, in keeping with