During the last 60 years, commercially relevant monomers used in anionic polymerization technology are limited to dienes (butadiene and isoprene) and vinyl aromatics (styrene), and industrial manufacturers are still largely limited to these monomers when introducing new products to the market. Even though there have been many academic studies evaluating new monomer systems which may produce value in anionic polymerization, it has been a challenge to commercialize new monomers for industrially because the monomers are not commercially available. Recently Amyris developed a new molecule, trans-β-farnesene (farnesene, or BioFene™) using a biotechnology platform which is a sustainable alternative to a broad range of petroleum-sourced feeds, and its conjugated diene structure has been shown to be a drop-in monomer for a range of polymerization chemistries, including anionic polymerization. Total Cray Valley has partnered with Amyris to developed farnesene-based anionic polymers, including mono- and di-functionalized oligomers. Due to the highly branched structure, farnesene-based polymer show interesting rheological properties compared with linear analogs. The anionic polymerization of trans-β-farnesene, the functionalization and modification of the oligomers, and the resulting physical properties will be discussed. Potential applications which take advantage of the new structure-property relationships will be included.

Anionic polymerization of BioFene (trans-β-farnesene) and their physical properties

251st National Meeting (2016)

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