Water is essential to life on Earth, however accessing, capturing, and releasing good quality water is difficult in many parts of the world. Currently, common methods of solidifying water use superabsorbent polymers (SAPs), a class of materials that absorbs large quantities of water without dissolving due to their ionic nature and interconnected structure. For instance, sodium salts of cross-linked poly(acrylic acid) and starch are widely used as SAPs commercially. Although these materials can effectively capture water at &gt;100-fold their mass, they are petrochemically-derived, non-degradable materials that only solidify water. To address these concerns, we present herein, our approach to incorporate natural products and carbon dioxide (CO2) in the production of degradable SAPs. Implementation of degradable bio-based polymeric materials not only benefit the environment but utilize the renewability of natural products. In addition, the use of CO2 as an inexpensive C1 feedstock is highly attractive since it is cost-effective, nontoxic, and abundant. Through the metal salen catalyst-promoted ring-opening copolymerization of epoxides with CO2, the synthesis of sustainable polycarbonates will be discussed. An initial focus includes the advancement of epoxide-CO2 copolymerization using naturally-derived monomers. Following chemical modification to incorporate hydrophilic side chain moieties, the polycarbonates produced are expected to serve as naturally-derived and hydrolytically degradable analogues of the well-established poly(acrylic acid). Furthermore, these materials are designed to act as simple sustainable fertilizer-releasing water containment systems.

Sustainable hydrogel-base materials for capture and storage of excessive liquid water through ring-opening copolymerization with biobased materials and carbon dioxide

2019 Fall National Meeting

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