Lipidic biomass as a renewable chemical building block for polymeric materials

Abstract

Polymers are intrinsically connected to modern society and are found and used in a variety of technologies. Although polymers are valuable, concerns about synthetic polymers derived from non-renewable sources have emerged. Therefore, there is a need to develop new polymeric materials from renewable sources, especially those that are cost-effective, non-toxic, widely available, not derived from depleting sources and are designed to be biodegradable after disposal. In this regard, a perfect class of renewable resources are the lipids (not soluble in water), among which, we can find useful compounds such as triacylglycerols/triglycerides (vegetable oil), terpenes/terpenoids (essential oils), and abietic acid (rosin resin). These are liable to modification to new monomers that can be used in adhesives, 3D-printing, self-healing and so on. However, these materials still suffer from some limitations when compared to non-renewable polymers. Therefore, in this feature article, we will present a description/review of these renewable sources together with related polymeric materials and their mechanical/chemical/physical properties and applications.