Due to the energy and environmental concerns, sustainable fuels, chemicals, and materials from renewable resources have gained tremendous momentum in a global scale. Plant oils are widely explored as a result of their abundance, low price, and easy modification. We present the design and preparation of novel monomers, thermoplastic polymers, and their nano-composites from soybean oil (SO). Amidation of SO with varied amino alcohols provided a series of mono-hydroxyl terminated derivatives, which were further converted into a variety of methacrylate monomers (SBMAs).1 Structure-property relationship of the polymers from these SBMAs were elucidated before the first thermoplastics from SO with Tg=30oC was prepared in a 2 lbs scale. Thermoset elastomers from random copolymer P(St-co-SBMA) and triblock structured thermal plastic elastomers PSt-b-PSBMA-b-PSt by ATRP were developed.2 Supramolecular nano-composites with high mechanical stress (30Mpa) were fabricated by introducing cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) to the modified soybean oil polymers. Finally, multiple shape memory materials with good shape fixity and recovery were prepared by a grafting strategy. Our results demonstrated novel strategies for the design of monomers, polymers, and nanocomposites from plant oil for the next generation of sustainable materials. Reference (1) Yuan, L.; Wang, Z.; Trenor, N. M.; Tang, C. Macromolecules 2015, 48, 1320. (2) Wang, Z.; Yuan, L.; Trenor, N. M.; Vlaminck, L.; Billiet, S.; Sarkar, A.; Du Prez, F. E.; Stefik, M.; Tang, C. Green Chemistry 2015, 17, 3806-3818.

Monomers, polymers, and nanocomposites derived from plant oil as next-generation sustainable materials

251st National Meeting (2016)

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