Diversifying Renewable Feedstocks for Biobased Polymers and Applications

Compared with petrochemical polymers, biobased polymers are very scarce in terms of variety and production volume. Only a few biobased polymers are available with sizable scales of commercial production, and they only find some niche applications due to limited performance and relatively high costs. In order for biobased polymers to replace conventional polymers in broad applications, developing new polymers with diverse properties is necessary. In this work, we made a series of attempts to explore the use of several renewable feedstocks in developing new polymer applications. The renewable feedstocks used include rosin, plan oils, lignin, terpenes, etc. Syntheses of epoxies, curing agents, poylurethanes and block copolymers using these renewable feedstocks were studied. By manipulating the molecular structures of monomers and polymers, the resulting polymers exhibited  a broad spectrum of properties.