Oil and Fatty Acid-based Polymers

C. MEIORIN; M. I. ARANGUEN; M. A. MOSIEWICKI

Los Cocos, Córdoba, Argentina

Simposio; Archipol 2009; 2009

In recent years, the preparation of polymeric materials from readily available, renewable, biodegradable and inexpensive natural resources have become increasingly important. Among the advantages of these eco-friendly polymers, there is the broad range of possibilities for synthesizing final materials and the consequently wide range of achievable properties (Kaplan, 1998). Tung oil is widely available as a major product from the seeds of the tung tree (Wood, 1949). It is composed mainly of a glyceride of elaeostearic acid. This highly unsatured, conjugated structure is largely responsible for the rapid polymerization and outstanding drying properties of this oil (Kinabrew, 1952). On the other hand, shape memory polymers are smart materials capable of fixing a transient shape and recovering their original dimensions by the application of an external stimulus. Materials obtained from tung oil can exhibit shape memory properties depending mainly of the polymerization conditions. (Z. G. Wei, R. Sandström, S. Miyazaki, 1998). The aim of this work, it is to synthesize copolymers tung oil/styrene by cationic polymerization. The mechanical properties and shape memory behavior of copolymers with different chemical stoichiometry is analyzed.