Issue 1, 2019

New renewably-sourced polyesters from limonene-derived monomers

Abstract

The functionalisation of limonene has enabled the synthesis of two renewably-sourced monomers for the formation of terpene-derived polyesters. Three methods for the synthesis of the novel hydroxy-acid 6 are reported and their green-credentials scrutinised through comparison of their sustainability-metrics. Step-growth homo-polymerisation of 6 is demonstrated to yield a low molecular weight (2.6 kDa) novel polyester with 100% of its carbon content originating from the terpene starting material. The corresponding diol 2 is shown to act as a co-monomer with a renewable diacid. The resultant polyesters display impressive Mns of up to 30 kDa with Tgs between −6 and 24 °C. These materials have been shown to depolymerise under basic conditions for reclamation of the diol monomer 2.

Graphical abstract: New renewably-sourced polyesters from limonene-derived monomers

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
18 Sep 2018
Accepted
26 Nov 2018
First published
26 Nov 2018

Green Chem., 2019,21, 149-156

New renewably-sourced polyesters from limonene-derived monomers

M. R. Thomsett, J. C. Moore, A. Buchard, R. A. Stockman and S. M. Howdle, Green Chem., 2019, 21, 149 DOI: 10.1039/C8GC02957A

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