Functionalized triglyceride polyesters

Polymers from Functionalized Triglycerides Polyesters. One of the oldest polyesters prepared from triglyceride oils are the alkyd resins. They are widely used in... 

In addition, PET can be used to form semi-IPNs with other naturally functionalized triglyceride oils, such as vemonia oU (31). The procedures for PET/vemonia semi-IPNs are essentially the same as those of PET/castor ones, but with important differences. For PET/castor mixtures, the diisocyanate cross-hnker was added at 240°C and the mixture was poured into the molds rapidly before the castor gel point had been reached. In this case, PET/castor polyurethane semi-IPNs were formed, in which crystallization and gelation occurred simultaneously resulting in a single, broad glass transition temperature. For PET/vernonia, the sebacic acid was added at 280°C, which reduced the temperature to about 250°C, where the mixture was held for another 5 min, then poured into a preheated mold and allowed to cool, during which time the PET crystalhzes. In this case, PET/vernonia polyester network was formed, and the PET crystallized prior to network formation because the latter... 

Other modifications of vegetable oils in polymer chemistry include the introduction of alkenyl functions, the study of novel polyesters and polyethers and the synthesis of semi-interpenetrating networks based on castor oil (the triglyceride of ricinoleic acid) [42], and also the production of sebacic acid and 10-undecenoic acid from castor oil [44]. Additionally, the recent application of metathesis reactions to unsaturated fatty acids has opened a novel avenue of exploitation leading to a variety of interesting monomers and polymers, including aliphatic polyesters and polyamides previously derived from petrochemical sources [42, 45]. 

It is known that the potential monomers or pol5uner building blocks should have at least one (in the case of addition polymerization) or two double bonds in their structure (in the case of condensation pol5nnerization) to get thermoplastic materials. Therefore, triglycerides should be modified of fimctionalized before pol5nnerization. Nevertheless, there are some examples of thermoplastic biomaterials obtained from naturally functionalized castor oil with homogeneous composition and acceptable polymerization yields. The main thermoplastic materials already synthesized from vegetable oils are thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs), polyamides (PA), thermoplastic polyesters, polyesteramides and polyanhydrides. 

Different polymeric materials such as alkyd resins, polyesters, and polyurethanes can be prepared from triglycerides and biodiesel after functionalization. As the synthesis of monomers and polymers from vegetable oils has several industrial applications, research in this area is widely... 

Many triglyceride oils such as castor oil, lesquerella oil, and ver-nonia oil have special functionalities on each of their three fatty acid chains in addition to double bonds. For castor and lesquerella, the acid residues have hydroxyl groups, while vernonia oil has oxirane groups. Besides these naturally occurring functionalized oils, linseed, crambe, lunaria, and lesquerella oil have been epoxidized to yield the oxirane functionality wherever a double bond existed. These special functionalities permit the formation of crosslinked polyesters or polyurethanes, which are usually soft elastomers with glass transition temperatures of about -50 C. The castor oil polyester with sebacic acid is especially interesting, since sebacic acid itself is derived commercially from cas-... 

Soybean oil is an abundant annually renewable resource. It is composed of triglycerides with long chain saturated and unsaturated hitty acids. The presence of these unsaturated tty acids results in poor oxidative stability. However, this enhanced reactivity also allows for chemical modification to introduce new functionalities to the oil. A novel single-step catalytic ozonolysis and in-situ reaction will be described. The reaction proceeds rapidly and efficiently at room temperature in the absence of solvents. The catalytic ozonolysis reaction has been used to reduce the unsaturation in soybean oil, and successfiiliy prepare a number of potentially useful materials such as bio-lubricants with good thermal/oxidative stability, bio-diesel with thermal properties comparable to that of Diesel Fuel 2, and bio-plastic intermediates such as polyols, polyesters, and polyamides. This new class of soy-based materials is competitive both in cost and performance to petroleum based nuterials and offers the added advantage of being environmentally friendly and sustainable. 

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