Humankind is facing a climate and energy crisis which demands global and prompt actions to minimize the negative impacts on the environment and on the lives of millions of people. Among all the disciplines which have an important role to play, chemistry has a chance to rethink the way molecules are made and find innovations to decrease the overall anthropic footprint on the environment. In this paper, we will provide a review of the existing knowledge but also recent advances on the manufacturing and end uses of acrylamide-based polymers following the “green chemistry” concept and 100 years after the revolutionary publication of Staudinger on macromolecules. After a review of raw material sourcing options (fossil derivatives vs. biobased), we will discuss the improvements in monomer manufacturing followed by a second part dealing with polymer manufacturing processes and the paths followed to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions. In the following section, we will see how the polyacrylamides help reduce the environmental footprint of end users in various fields such as agriculture or wastewater treatment and discuss in more detail the fate of these molecules in the environment by looking at the existing literature, the regulations in place and the procedures used to assess the overall biodegradability. In the last section, we will review macromolecular engineering principles which could help enhance the degradability of said polymers when they reach the end of their life cycle.

Two grades of chitosan [chitosan 30000 g mol−1 (N-chitosan 30) and 250000 g mol−1 (N-chitosan 250)] were functionalized by the Kabachnik–Fields reaction. To obtain the highest phosphonic ester grafting rate (55% and 40% for the N-chitosan 30 and N-chitosan 250, respectively), the pH must be kept constant during the reaction (pH=5). Then, a partial hydrolysis of the ester functions was carried out in HCl medium to generate phosphonic acid functions up to 25% and 20% for the N-chitosan 30 and N-chitosan 250, respectively. It was shown that the grafting of phosphonic acids on chitosan significantly reduced the dynamic viscosity. Afterwards, electrochemical impedance measurements were performed in an aqueous solution (pH=5) in the presence of either N-chitosans or P-chitosans (3 wt.%). The two native N-chitosans were little adsorbed onto the carbon steel surface and the corrosion protection was low. In contrast, the impedance results in the presence of the 30000 g mol−1 phosphorylated chitosan (P-chitosan 30) evidenced the beneficial effect of grafted phosphonic acid on its adsorption on the steel surface. The lower efficiency of the 250000 g mol−1 (P-chitosan 250) was attributed to its high molecular weight which made difficult the interactions between the phosphonic groups and the metallic surface.

New bio-based phosphorylated chitosan/alginate protective coatings on aluminum alloy obtained by the LbL technique. (2019) Surfaces and Interfaces, 16. 59-66.