Catalytic Approaches to Monomers for Polymers Based on Renewables

Abstract

Polymers are used in simple consumer items like carpets, furniture, glues, and clothing but are also used in advanced engineering, including materials used in the aerospace industry. Therefore, polymers and consequently their monomers play an important role in our everyday life. Currently, most of the monomers are produced from fossil resources, the supply of which is diminishing. In this paper we review strategies and catalytic processes to obtain currently used and potentially new monomers from renewable bio-based feedstocks and platform chemicals. This Review is divided by type of monomer and includes diacids and esters, diols, hydroxy acids and esters, lactones, carbonates, cyclic ethers, diamines, amino acids and lactams, alkenes, acrylics, and conjugated dienes. Only routes based on the use of homogeneous catalysis, heterogeneous catalysis, or bio-catalysis are described. Fermentative processes are not discussed.

Carbon dioxide copolymers: Emerging sustainable materials for versatile applications

“…Since most plastics exhibit excellent durability beneficial for use, their after‐use accumulation may persist for hundreds of years, causing irreversible environmental damage to the land and ocean 4–8 . Therefore, from the perspective of sustainability and environmental protection, biobased and biodegradable polymers have been developed as alternatives, to release the stress on the exploit of petroleum and solve the pollution problems from waste plastics 9–11 . In the recent findings, some novel materials synthesized from biobased monomers can serve as the both, demonstrating full recyclability process 12–14 …”

“…[4][5][6][7][8] Therefore, from the perspective of sustainability and environmental protection, biobased and biodegradable polymers have been developed as alternatives, to release the stress on the exploit of petroleum and solve the pollution problems from waste plastics. [9][10][11] In the recent findings, some novel materials synthesized from biobased monomers can serve as the both, demonstrating full recyclability process. [12][13][14]…”

Kinetics of Alkyl Lactate Formation from the Alcoholysis of Poly(Lactic Acid)

“…Additionally, ALs are building blocks of valuable chemicals. Propylene glycol, a main chemical for polymer production, can be synthesised from lactic acid and its esters [19,20]. Likewise, diynones, a group of starting materials for a range of chemicals, can be produced from EtLa [21].…”

Recent Developments in Heterogeneous Catalytic Routes for the Sustainable Production of Succinic Acid from Biomass Resources

“…Heterogeneous catalysts are widely used for biomass conversion to produce a wide variety of fine chemicals. [24] Singlemetal as well as bimetallic catalytic systems of Ru, Nb, Pt, Rh, and Pd have been employed in the synthesis of SA by the catalytic conversion of biomass sources such as sugars, LA, MA, maleic anhydride, and tartaric acid (TA). This is due to their ability to target specific functional groups to produce higher yields of the desired commodities without the production of undesired chemicals of lower value.…”