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Abstract

The production capacity of biopolymers is expected to grow from 5.1 to 17 million tons in the next five years, doubling biopolymers share of the total polymer production. In the European Union, the biobased plastics market is expected to reach 5.2 billion euro in 2030. Some of the key drivers to get more biobased content into products will be new legislation, and consumers, brand owners and manufacturers demanding products that are more than just green and renewable. Among biobased polymers, linear polyesters such as poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) have been extensively studied as they can be synthesized from renewable feedstock. But there is still a need for new biobased aliphatic polyesters with reactive groups which can be utilized for crosslinking, further functionalization or to obtain block copolymers. This would allow to tailor properties, such as the melting point, crystallinity, glass transition and molecular weight, extending the range of PBS applications. The goal of this study was to synthesize telechelic PBS, with all monomers now being available from renewable resources. The endgroups were functionalized using crotonic acid (2-butenoic acid). It was selected for this purpose because of its alkene functionality and the possibility to access it from bio-based feedstock. New grafted biopolymer structures were obtained using two synthesis methods. The resulting polymers with reactive endgroups were characterized to determine their chemical structure and respective thermal properties. This work was funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment of New Zealand.

Biography

Email: Marion.Sanglard@scionresearch.com