Polymers derived from renewable resources are becoming considerably attractive as sustainable alternatives to their petroleum-derived counterparts. Lignin is a natural and abundant raw material made up of cross-linked aromatics that could potentially be broken down to yield renewable bio-based monomers for applications in high-performance thermosetting resins. Vanillin, a lignin-derived aromatic molecule, can be reduced to yield an aromatic diol, vanillyl alcohol. Vanillyl alcohol is a promising monomer for the synthesis of epoxy pre-polymers. In this work, diglycidyl ether of vanillyl alcohol (DGEVA) was synthesized and its chemical structure was confirmed by 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, FT-IR, and GPC. Bimodal resin blends of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) with varying weight ratios of DGEVA as well as other single aromatic epoxies were prepared and cured with a diamine to investigate their structure-property relationships. Thermogravimetric and viscoelastic properties of the cured resins were characterized and compared using TGA and DMA, respectively. The vanillyl alcohol based epoxy-diamine system possesses a higher glass transition temperature Tg (106 °C) than the other single aromatic epoxy-diamine systems as well as a higher storage modulus E' at 25 °C (3 GPa) than the petroleum-based DGEBA-diamine resin.

Synthesis, characterization, and bimodal blend studies of renewable biobased epoxy resins from vanillyl alcohol

249th National Meeting (2015)

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