Polymeric materials derived from renewable feedstock attract a lot of attention in recent years, targeting to replace currently used petroleum-based counterparts. Xylan, which is a polysaccharide that can be found in the cell walls of plants, can be derived from corncobs, birchwood, beechwood and is currently considered an agricultural waste product. Due to its chemical structure, particularly the presence of multiple hydroxyl groups along the polymer backbone, its incorporation into plastic materials can improve material impact resistance, toughness and increase barrier properties. However, further chemical modifications are required for feasible applications due to xylan hydrophilicity and brittleness. Previously, our group reported on one-step synthesis of plant oil-based acrylic monomers (POBMs) from a variety of plant oils with various unsaturation amount. The vinyl bond in the POBM undergoes free radical chain propagation reaction, while allylic bonds in the fatty acid chains remain intact and can be used for further post polymerization cross linking reactions. Incorporation of POBM fragments into the copolymer macromolecules facilitates internal plasticizing effect and increases water repellent properties. In this study, two POBMs derived from more unsaturated high oleic soybean oil (HOSBM) and primarily saturated babassu oil (BOBM), are grafted to the xylan backbone using free radical mechanism. The synthetic aim is in to benefit from xylan and grafted (polyPOBM) properties and develop fully biobased plastics with superior mechanical and barrier properties. The desired application of the resulted grafted (poly POBM)-xylan can be, in particular, modification of paper-based packaging materials to replace currently used petroleum-based protective coatings. Following grafting polymerization, pol(POBM) -xylan was blended with carnauba wax. Due to ability of this natural additive to form crystalline domains- its presence was expected to favor barrier properties of resulting material.

Grafted copolymers of hemicellulose Xylan and plant oil-based acrylic monomers for bioplastic applications

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