Sustainable polymers derived from plant oils

全球塑料生产仍然以石化聚合物为主；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，而其中的一个关键是生物聚合物的发展。生物聚合物是一个包罗万象的术语，包括生物基聚合物和生物可降解聚合物，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分解的聚合物(尽管它们可以是石化或生物基)。这项提案将侧重于合成生物聚合物，作为石化聚合物的可持续替代品。与任何新兴技术一样，生物聚合物成功的关键是能够以经济高效的方式生产出与传统方法制成的材料质量相当的材料。应该指出的是，虽然可持续原料的开发解决了我们聚合物的来源问题，但应该注意这些材料的加工和寿命结束。依赖于使用有毒物质和材料的过程，没有考虑到它们的寿命结束处置，只是简单地用一个问题代替另一个问题，而不是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，将通过直接酯交换从植物油中提取单体，从而避免不符合绿色化学或循环经济原则的复杂的多步骤化学反应。之后，将使用受控自由基聚合(CRP)技术对单体进行聚合。CRP技术是有利的，因为它们可以聚合各种单体，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-断裂链转移)聚合，这是一种已被证明是通用的技术，能够很好地控制分子量和分散性，从而可以改善聚合物的性能和性能。合成的聚合物将被用于生物医学、洗涤和个人护理产品(例如护发和化妆品)以及粘合剂和涂料等应用。

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.