Every year millions of tonnes of plastics and are produced [1]. Of the annual production, about 10% is recycled, 15% is burned and the remaining 75% is disposed to landfills or leaks into the environment [2]. Simultaneously as the demand of plastic materials is increasing, there is a paradigm shift towards more sustainable materials. The design and development of sustainable polymers, the backbone of plastics, is therefore crucial [3].
Major strategies include using biomass as a source of green carbon, designing polymers towards
degradability and enabling chemical recycling. Depending on the source of carbon and the ability
to degrade, polymers used for plastics are classified as petrobased or biobased and degrabable or
non-degradable.
Despite the industrial production of biobased and biodegradable polymers, there are challenges yet
to overcome. High performance polymer resins are important in applications such as coatings and matrices in fiber reinforced composites for several industries such as construction, marine, automotive, aerospace, energy, and biomedical sectors. The global market value was estimated to be 10.5 billion USD in 2021 and expecting to surpass 17 billion USD by 2030 [4,5]. To reduce the use of petroleum as the feedstock for polymer materials including polymer resins, biobased alternatives are needed.
This project focuses on preparing and investigating bio-derivable unsaturated polyesters based on pyridine diacids, and crosslinking them with lignin-derived vinyl monomers (4-acetoxystyrene and 4-methoxy-3-acetoxystyrene) to produce sustainable resins. These components retain functionality from nature that may open new routes for degradability and easier sorting of materials. The nitrogen functionality introduced by the pyridine building blocks not only affects the thermal and mechanical properties but may also enable new degradation pathways and improved identification in recycling streams.
Among common type of resins used within industry, unsaturated polyester resins (UPRs) are widely used because they can be cured (crosslinked) into strong, durable thermoset materials. Traditionally, this curing relies on styrene, which is both oil-based and hazardous. In this study, we also explored renewable aromatic vinyl monomers as alternatives to toxic styrene, offering the potential to reduce environmental and risk to health while maintaining material performance.
References:
1. Ritchie, H., & Roser, M., Plastic Pollution. Our World in Data, (2018)
2. Lau, W. W. Y., Shiran, Y., Bailey, R. M., Cook, E., Stuchtey, M. R., Koskella, J., Velis, C. A., Godfrey, L., Boucher, J., Murphy, M. B., Thompson, R. C., Jankowska, E., Castillo, A. C., Pilditch, T. D., Dixon, B., Koerselman, L., Kosior, E., Favoino, E., Gutberlet, J., Palardy, J. E. Evaluating scenarios toward zero plastic pollution. Science, 2020
3. de Pablo, J., & Hillmyer, M. A., Sustainable Polymers Square Table. Macromolecules, 2021.
4. Advanced Polymer Composites Market, GMI, 2022
5. Global Bio-Based Resins Market – Industry Trends and Forecast to 2029, Data Bridge, 2022; 10th anniversary of the EU Bioeconomy Strategy, EC website.
