Issue 27, 2020

Sustainable alternative to bisphenol A epoxy resin: high-performance recyclable epoxy vitrimers derived from protocatechuic acid

Abstract

Vitrimers have constituted one of the hottest research fields in recent years since they are not only mechanically robust and thermally stable like traditional thermosets but also can be recycled through a physical hot press like thermoplastics. Epoxy vitrimers are the most promising of all vitrimers because they are easy to prepare and durable for long-term service. Aromatic biomass has recently been shown to replace commercial bisphenol A as a raw material for epoxy vitrimers, but it is usually difficult to use it to achieve high performance and reprocessability at the same time. Starting from protocatechuic acid, a series of high-performance epoxy vitrimers with different catalyst loadings and ratios of epoxy/anhydride were prepared. In this work, the new epoxy resins showed much better thermal and mechanical properties (Tg = 157 °C, tensile strength = 65 MPa) than commercial BPA-based epoxy resins. Moreover, these bio-based epoxy vitrimers can also be reprocessed with extremely high efficiency and degraded in NaOH solution. The great properties of epoxy vitrimers derived from protocatechuic acid indicate that they can be used as renewable alternatives to BPA epoxy resins.

Graphical abstract: Sustainable alternative to bisphenol A epoxy resin: high-performance recyclable epoxy vitrimers derived from protocatechuic acid

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
15 Apr 2020
Accepted
06 Jun 2020
First published
10 Jun 2020

Polym. Chem., 2020,11, 4500-4506

Sustainable alternative to bisphenol A epoxy resin: high-performance recyclable epoxy vitrimers derived from protocatechuic acid

Y. Tao, L. Fang, M. Dai, C. Wang, J. Sun and Q. Fang, Polym. Chem., 2020, 11, 4500 DOI: 10.1039/D0PY00545B

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements