Sustainable strategy for the synthesis of novel vegetable oil derived polymeric materials

This study reports a sustainable strategy to produce polymeric materials with convenient properties, employing principles close to green chemistry, starting from epoxy/methacrylate vegetable oil monomers. New bio‐based derivatives were obtained from the well‐known epoxidized linseed oil, reacted with a renewable reagent, undecylenic acid, using suitable synthesis parameters in heterogeneous catalysis. The undecylenic double bonds grafted on the linseed oil structure were then reacted, resulting epoxidized undecylenic acid‐linseed oil (monomer 1). Monomer 1 was further used as an intermediate to obtain methacrylic derivatives: monomer 2—methacrylate epoxidized undecylenic acid‐linseed oil (bearing both epoxy and methacrylic moieties) and monomer 3—methacrylate undecylenic acid‐linseed oil (bearing only methacrylic functionalities). These three monomers were employed in different eco‐friendly ultraviolet/visible light curing attempts, proving their ability to generate polymer networks in different reaction conditions. The resulting materials were investigated through different thermal and thermo‐mechanical assays, establishing their general properties. The influence of the undecylenic fragments, epoxy/methacrylate content and curing conditions were established. Gel fraction varied according to the initial precursor composition (62/87% for the epoxy‐based materials; 58/91% for the methacrylic‐based materials). A good elasticity was observed for the new materials (Tg ranging from 20 to 44°C), and a great thermal resistance also (thermal degradation temperatures of 400/453°C for the epoxy network and 382°C for the methacrylic one), in good agreement with other studied mono‐ or di‐functional polymer matrices.