POLY 107

Biobased materials are becoming more and more popular in technical products such as plastics, composites and construction materials. Polymers can be made from biobased raw materials, the most common is polylactic acid, which is a thermoplastic material, and has found use in packaging products. Biobased thermosets have also been developed. Triglycerides from plants, such as soybean, palm, rapeseed or sun flower, can be utilised. The triglyceride compound must be isolated and purified, and also functionalised to get reactivity. Various chemical modification reactions are possible; the most common goes via an epoxidation reaction. In this presentation we will describe some synthetic attempts to functionalize epoxidised soybean oil, by reaction with methacrylic acid, methacrylic anhydride and acetic anhydride.

The synthesis procedure was done in two steps. In the first step epoxidised soybean oil was reacted with methacrylic acid to give a partly modified resin. In the second step, the modification was continued by reacting with methacrylic anhydride, and a fully modified resin was obtained. Alternatively, the second step modification, was done with acetic anhydride.

The characterisations of these thermoset resins were done using FT-IR and NMR spectroscopy. The obtained resins were cross-linked by a free radical mechanism. The resins were mixed with tert-butylperoxybenzoate and then cured thermally at 160 degree celcius for 24 h. Samples were drawn at intervals and DSC analysis done to determine the extent of crosslinking.