Cardanol is an agro-based raw material derived from cashew nut shell liquid, which is a byproduct of cashew nut processing. In order to extend its utility, we sought to derivatize cardanol in two ways. For the first derivative, we employed the ene reaction (a pericylic reaction), which was facile and required only the application of heat without a catalyst. The product of cardanol and diethyl azodicarboxylate was a hydrozino-ester derivative (Figure 1, top reaction), which increased in viscosity with time and may perhaps be useful as a viscosifier in oil-based materials. Both conventional and microwave heating was shown to be effective; the latter entailed much shorter reaction time and substantial energy savings. For the second derivative, cardanol was epoxidized and then reacted with aniline with the help of an ionic liquid catalyst. The resulting aminohydrin was shown to undergo a condensation reaction with formaldehyde to form a prepolymer, which could be further reacted to form a thermosetting resin (Figure 1, bottom reaction). The reaction pathways for these reactions were fully characterized by using NMR spectroscopy.

New bio-related materials based on cardanol

255th National Meeting (2018)

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