During the past recent years, the interest in the chemistry of sustainable and renewable resources used for the production of polymeric materials gained considerable interest.<sup>1 </sup>Indeed, up to now the majority of the raw materials use as chemical compounds for the production of polymeric materials stem mainly from fossil resources. However, facing the depletion of fossils resources as well as their increasing prices and the growing concern of their impact on the environment and on the human health, it is of urgent need to find a viable and renewable alternative. In this context, renewable building blocks derived from biomass such as plant oils, polysaccharides, lignin or hemicelluloses are considered as attractive and inexhaustible resources. Among those naturally occurring raw materials, hemicelluloses, represent 15% to 35% of plants and wood and are the second most abundant natural polymers in the vegetal world after cellulose. Even though hemicelluloses can be considered as a very interesting source of bio-based building blocks for the chemistry and polymer industries, they still remain underexploited. Indeed, a large fraction of the extracted hemicelluloses-rich material is mainly composed of low-molecular mass oligomers. Consequently, alternatives to add value to this low molecular mass fractions are therefore needed. The present work reflects the conversion of low molecular mass fractions of hemicellulose into polymeric materials through chain extension. Molecular, thermal and thermo-mechanical characterizations of the obtained polymers will be detailed.<br/><br/>

From low-molecular weight hemicelluloses to new biopolymers

255th National Meeting (2018)

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