Polymers vegetation-based structured materials

Biocomposites are very fascinating materials since they offer characteristics of two or more different materials, in order to have very specific features that would be practically impossible to obtain by every single material of biocomposite. Chitin is an abundant biopolymer obtained from shrimp, insects and some vegetal species. This material is capable to remove some contaminants like fluoride from water. Nevertheless, in order to improve the mechanical characteristics of chitin, in order to be applied in water treatment in real conditions, it must be supported. Polyurethane is a very versatile polymer due to its chemical structure. During its synthesis, interactions between functional groups take place in order to create the urethane group. The synthesis of biocomposite must bear in mind that interaction between compounds is essential to create a mechanical and chemical resistant material. FTIR with ATR analysis was carried out to characterize a biocomposite based on chitin and polyurethane, demonstrating that interaction between them occurs. 

Vegetable oil-based highly branched polymers are presented in Chapter 9, including their basic idea, structural concept, characterisation, properties and potential applications in comparison to conventional polymers. Chapter 10 presents the topic of composites based on environmentally degradable and eco-compatible vegetable oil-based polymeric materials. Consideration is given their potential as an advanced environmentally acceptable alternative to petroleum-based materials. 

Considerable recent effort has been directed towards the conversion of vegetable oils into solid polymeric materials. These vegetable oil-based polymers generally possess viable mechanical properties and thus show promise as structural materials in a variety of applications. For example. Wool and coworkers have prepared rigid thermosets and composites via free-radical copolymerization of soybean oil monoglyceride maleates and styrene (10-12). The new maleate monomers are obtained by glycerol transesterification of soybean oil, followed by esterification with maleic anhydride (10). It has been... 

Abstract This chapter describes vegetable oil-based addition polymers and polyamides. It deals with the importance, materials and methods, structure-property relationships and applications of vegetable oil-based addition polymers and polyamides. The chapter also inclndes a short review of such addition polymers and polyamides from various vegetable oils. It is shown that vegetable oils also play a key role in synthesising these industrial polymers. The importance of snch polymers is highlighted, as they can be used in surface coatings and paints and in the antomotive and transport industry. 

Vegetable oil-based hyperbranched polymers have considerable potential in biomedical applications. This is due to their unique structural characteristics along with their biodegradability and biocompatibiUty. Preliminary studies show that vegetable oil-based hyperbranched polyurethanes have the potential to be used as biomaterials in biomedical applications such as drug delivery systems, biomedical smart materials and catheters. ... 

Vegetable oil-based polymers are one of the most useful polymeric materials in the context of advanced polymers in modern society. They are versatile because of their structural diversity and their ease of modification. Sectors such as agriculture, automotives, biomedical and packaging all require environmentally friendly polymers. In the civilised world of today, materials need to follow the principles of green chemistry with a triple bottom line approach in order to keep the environment clean and useful for future generations. This book therefore aims to blend the basic ideas along with advanced understanding of this important class of polymers. 

The fact that castor oil is a well-established industrial commodity because of the importance of some of its derivatives and macromolecular materials explains why so many studies on polymers derived from vegetable oils have focused on the use of ricinoleic acid, 10-undecenoic acid, and several other molecules based on their structures. Chapter 3 considered the context of direct polymerisation of this oil and its main fatty acid. This section is devoted to reviewing the most salient recent aspects of the vast realm of monomers and polymers based on their second-generation derivatives. Its treatment begins after the exhaustive review that Mutlu and Meier published in 2010 [124]. The impressive number of contributions since 2010 testifies to the relevance that this area has acquired. Some general notions are, however, needed to set the stage . 

More recently, a variety of exciting new polymeric materials have been prepared in our group by the cationic copolymerization of soybean and other vegetable oils with a variety of alkene comonomers 18-35). These biopolymers possess industrially viable thermophysical and mechanical properties and thus may find structural applications. This chemistry takes advantage of the original C=C bonds of the soybean 18-27), tung 28,29), corn 30) and fish oils 31-35) to effect crosslinking. In this chapter, we shall focus primarily on the synthesis and characterization of soybean oil-based polymers, which result from the direct copolymerization of the C=C bonds of soybean oils with other comonomers via cationic polymerization 18-27). 

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