Vegetable polymeric materials

Polyethylene and polystyrene are examples of plastics subject to environmental stress cracking. Crack resistance tests have shown that surfactants, alcohols, organic acids, vegetable and mineral oils, and ethers provide an active environment for stress cracking of polyethylene. Table 6 lists typical sterile devices and plastic materials used to fabricate them, while Tables 7-9 list the potential effects of sterilization processes on polymeric materials. The effect of gamma irradiation on elastomeric closures has been studied by the Parenteral Drug Association [15]. 

Regrettably, all this chemical ferment has not yet found a biochemical counterpart in the sense that no study on the use of biocatalytic systems has been published in the context of the use of vegetable oils or their fatty acids as sources of polymeric materials. 

Vegetable fibers also show time-dependent properties associated with other polymeric materials. There is, however, only limited data available, which analyzes creep, relaxation, or strain-rate behavior of vegetable fibers. 

A biocompatible product may be plasticized by lipids. Lipids were found to be compatible with over 20 different polymeric materials. Vegetable oils were found to be suitable as plasticizers. ... 

Y. Lu and R. C. Larock, Novel polymeric materials from vegetable oils and vinyl monomers Preparation, properties, and applications , ChemSusChem, 2009,2, 136 7. 

Almost all types of vegetable oil-based polymer nanocomposites, that is clay/polymer nanocomposites, carbon nanotubes/polymer nanocomposites, metal nanoparticles/polymer nanocomposites (metals such as Ag, Cu, Fe and their oxides) are found in the literature. These have several advantages over their respective pure polymers, or conventional polymer composite systems, and thus have the potential to meet the current demand for advanced polymeric materials. 

Thus vegetable oil-based polymer nanocomposites have considerable significance in the development of advanced polymeric materials, offering great improvement in performance characteristics without a large increase in cost. Nanotechnology may therefore carve out a unique niche of its own in the area of vegetable oil-based polymer nanocomposites. 

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. 

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. 

The main actors involved in oleochemistry are located in Asia, because of the climatic suitability for such agricultural activity Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines being the main producers. Fats from animal biomass are produced mostly in the US and Europe. The respective production of fats and oils for the four main continents, Asia, North America, Europe and South America, is 44,16,15 and 14 per cent. The present chapter deals exclusively with the use of vegetable oils as sources of polymeric materials, because the structures of fats do not lend themselves meaningfully to that application. 

The purpose of this chapter is to deal exclusively with the use of furan conqtounds and the exploitation of specific features related to furan chemistry with the aim of synthesizing polymeric materials. Imphcit in this treatment is the fact that vegetable renewable resources, in the form of mono, oligo and polysaccharides, are excellent sources of two first generation furans which, in turn, represent sources of a variety of monomers and other derivatives relevant to polymer synthesis. Although this topic has been reviewed on previous occasions [4], important advances have enriched it in recent years. An attempt will therefore be made to provide here a balanced treatment covering both the most salient achievements reported in the past several decades and novel promising contributions and perspectives. 

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