Petrochemically-based polymers contribute to anthropogenic carbon emissions, proliferate in the environment as waste due to poor biodegradability, are often prepared from harmful and/or toxic precursors, and are not renewable or sustainable. Thus, renewable alternatives are needed that address these deficiencies while offering similar or superior performance and technoeconomics. Polymers derived from vegetable oils represent promising alternatives due to their renewability, wide availability, inherent biodegradability, and customizability due to the variation in fatty acid composition among vegetable oils. Fully biobased copolymers were readily prepared via ring opening polymerization of epoxidized vegetable oils with renewable carboxylic acids under mild reaction conditions. Polymerizations were performed at 70 – 90 °C for 2 – 4 hours with the acid serving as both comonomer and catalyst. Properties of the resulting copolymers were measured, which included molecular weight, dispersity, glass transition temperature, thermal stability, residual oxirane oxygen content, and green metrics such as atom economy and carbon economy. The influence of structure on properties will be discussed as well as applications of the resulting copolymers.

Biopolymers synthesized from ring opening polymerization of epoxidized vegetable oils with multifunctional renewable acids

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