Access to a wide range of plastic materials has been rationalized by the increased demand from growing populations and the development of high-throughput production systems. Plastic materials at low costs with reliable properties have been utilized in many everyday products. Multibillion-dollar companies are established around these plastic materials, and each polymer takes years to optimize, secure intellectual property, comply with the regulatory bodies such as the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals and the Environmental Protection Agency and develop consumer confidence. Therefore, developing a fully sustainable new plastic material with even a slightly different chemical structure is a costly and long process. Hence, the production of the common plastic materials with exactly the same chemical structures that does not require any new registration processes better reflects the reality of how to address the critical future of sustainable plastics. In this review, we have highlighted the very recent examples on the synthesis of common monomers using chemicals from sustainable feedstocks that can be used as a like-for-like substitute to prepare conventional petrochemical-free thermoplastics.

Levulinic acid is a multipurpose platform chemical that is currently used in a wide variety of applications.

Poly(2-oxazoline)s are an attractive class of polymers that have a potential for biomedical applications. However, synthetic approaches for the preparation of 2-oxazoline-based star-shaped polymers are quite limited and are usually based on either end-capping of a living chain with a multifunctional terminator or utilizing a multifunctional initiator. Up until now, the use of a bisoxazoline monomer as a cross-linking agent for the synthesis of core cross-linked star shaped poly(2-oxazoline) polymers has not been reported. Herein, we have developed a new bis-oxazoline cross-linker via a fast and efficient thiol click reaction with no catalyst and purification required. Moreover, we have utilized this cross-linker to prepare well-controlled core cross-linked star polymers with poly(2-oxazoline) arms in a straightforward manner. Synthesized star-shaped polymers were characterized in detail using an advanced gel permeation chromatography technique and were found to have a range of arms from <10 to over 1000. Furthermore, the effect of the reaction concentration, amount of cross-linker, and arm length on star formation were analyzed and the stars' potential for dihydroxyanthroquinone encapsulation was explored.