Bio‐Based Polymers Obtained from Modified Fatty Acids and Soybean Oil with Tailorable Physical and Mechanical Performance

HERNÁNDEZ, EMANUEL; MOSIEWICKI, MIRNA. A.; MARCOVICH, NORMA. E.

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF LIPID SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH

Año: 2020

1438-7697

The impending world oil shortage, global climate changes, and environmentalpollution encourage the use of natural renewable resources to producesubstitutes for petroleum-derived polymers. In this work, two series ofbio-based thermoset polymers are prepared by free radical polymerization ofcommercially available acrylated epoxidized soybean oil (AESO) with differentamounts of methacrylated oleic (MOA) or lauric (MLA) acids. Thecharacterization of the resulting cured bio-based copolymers is performed byinfrared spectroscopy, dynamic mechanical analysis, thermogravimetricanalysis, and tensile tests. Experimental results show that heat resistanceindex, storage modulus, and crosslinking density increase as the content ofAESO in the samples increases, whereas the corresponding glass transitiontemperatures (Tg) decrease slightly. Samples containing MLA present highertensile modulus and strength than polymers made from MOA or 100% AESO.All materials are insoluble in water and common organic solvents, show hightransparency and water contact angles among 67° and 86.3°, and at leastsome of the samples demonstrate stress relaxation capacity.Practical Applications: The properties of the bio-based polymers obtained inthis work can be adapted to different potential applications by selecting boththe amount and type of constituents. Their tailorable physical and mechanicalperformance, malleability at elevated temperatures, moderate wettablesurfaces, easy preparation, high content of bio-carbon, and environmentalbenefits make these novel bio-based polymers great candidates not only forstructural applications but also as protective or decorative coatings.