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Polymers
Special Issues
Renewable Functional Polymeric Materials
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Renewable Functional Polymeric Materials

A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Polymer Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 August 2022) | Viewed by 12307

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Falko Pippig

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Polymer Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia
Interests: Polyaddition; polycondensation; renewable polymers; Tulipalin A; adhesives; films; surface modifciation; X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy; matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass-spectroscopy

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Currently, polymers that are considered to be biorenewable are under discussion. It is commonly known that a crude-oil-based economy has its limitations due to a limited amount of global crude oil stock. It is necessary for the further development of our technologies to switch to polymers that are produced from sources other than crude oil. The production of polymers from plants, from molecules contained within plants and from the fermentation of plants are strategies followed by many polymer chemists. The most famous result of this curiosity is poly(lactide), which is the most known renewable polymer. However, there are many other monomers and polymerization strategies available. If the whole polymer production process was based on just one strategy it would automatically lead to monocultures and we would pay a very high price in the context of ecology for a renewable polymer industry. Another aspect which can be discussed is the consumption of water, which is needed in order to grow the plants that are later used as sources of monomers. It should also be considered that plants used for polymer production should not coexist with plants used for food production. The scope of this Special Issue is to summarize renewable polymers including poly(lactide) but also polymers that have other origins. Its aim is not only to look at the polymers themselves; it will also aim to focus on the origin of the monomers and their ability for large-scale production. Therefore, this Special Issue should help to show that biodiversity and a renewable polymer economy can go hand in hand. Last but not least, contributions are also warmly welcome which show novel applications that can be only be realized with polymers produced from renewable monomers.

Dr. Falko Pippig
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • flowers
  • plant extracts
  • fermentation
  • bacterials
  • polymers
  • compostable
  • polyaddition
  • polycondensation
  • polymerization
  • free radical polymerization
  • controlled radical polymerization
  • ring-opening polymerization
  • poly(lactide)
  • poly(lactide-co-glycolic acid)
  • polyhydroxy acids
  • Tulipalin A
  • itaconic acid
  • menthol
  • menthide
  • levulinic acid
  • roisin ester
  • soybean seed oil
  • epoxidation
  • unsaturated oleic acid
  • crude oil stock
  • scalability
  • monocultures
  • biodiversity
  • renewable polyamide
  • renewable diamines
  • renewable organic acids
  • renewable unsaturated molecules

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 3284 KiB  
Article
Oligocat: Oligoesters as Pseudo-Homogenous Catalysts for Biodiesel Synthesis
by Vitor Vlnieska, Aline Silva Muniz, Angelo Roberto dos Santos Oliveira, Maria Aparecida Ferreira César-Oliveira and Danays Kunka
Polymers 2022, 14(1), 210; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym14010210 - 05 Jan 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2064
Abstract
Biodiesel production from first-generation feedstock has shown a strong correlation with the increase in deforestation and the necessity of larger areas for land farming. Recent estimation from the European Federation for Transport and Environment evidenced that since the 2000s decade, an area equal [...] Read more.
Biodiesel production from first-generation feedstock has shown a strong correlation with the increase in deforestation and the necessity of larger areas for land farming. Recent estimation from the European Federation for Transport and Environment evidenced that since the 2000s decade, an area equal to the Netherlands was deforested to supply global biodiesel demand, mainly originating from first-generation feedstock. Nevertheless, biodiesel is renewable, and it can be a greener source of energy than petroleum. A promising approach to make biodiesel independent from large areas of farming is to shift as much as possible the biodiesel production chain to second and third generations of feedstock. The second generation presents three main advantages, where it does not compete with the food industry, its commercial value is negligible, or none, and its usage as feedstock for biodiesel production reduces the overall waste disposal. In this manuscript, we present an oligomeric catalyst designed to be multi-functional for second-generation feedstock transesterification reactions, mainly focusing our efforts to optimize the conversion of tallow fat and sauteing oil to FAME and FAEE, applying our innovative catalyst. Named as Oligocat, our catalyst acts as a Brønsted-Lowry acid catalyst, providing protons to the reaction medium, and at the same time, with the course of the reaction, it sequesters glycerol molecules from the medium and changes its physical phase during the transesterification reaction. With this set of properties, Oligocat presents a pseudo-homogenous behavior, reducing the purification and separation steps of the biodiesel process production. Reaction conditions were optimized applying a 42 factorial planning. The output parameter evaluated was the conversion rate of triacylglycerol to mono alkyl esters, measured through gel permeation chromatography (GPC). After the optimization studies, a conversion yield of 96.7 (±1.9) wt% was achieved, which allows classifying the obtained mono alkyl esters as biodiesel by ASTM D6751 or EN 14214:2003. After applying the catalyst in three reaction cycles, Oligocat still presented a conversion rate above 96.5 wt% and as well an excellent recovery rate. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Renewable Functional Polymeric Materials)
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17 pages, 3057 KiB  
Article
Synthesis and Chemical Functionalization of Pseudo-Homogeneous Catalysts for Biodiesel Production—Oligocat
by Vitor Vlnieska, Aline S. Muniz, Angelo R. S. Oliveira, Maria A. F. César-Oliveira and Danays Kunka
Polymers 2022, 14(1), 19; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym14010019 - 22 Dec 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2613
Abstract
With the increase in global demand for biodiesel, first generation feedstock has drawn the attention of governmental institutions due to the correlation with large land farming areas. The second and third feedstock generations are greener feedstock sources, nevertheless, they require different catalytic conditions [...] Read more.
With the increase in global demand for biodiesel, first generation feedstock has drawn the attention of governmental institutions due to the correlation with large land farming areas. The second and third feedstock generations are greener feedstock sources, nevertheless, they require different catalytic conditions if compared with first generation feedstock. In this work, we present the synthesis and characterization of oligoesters matrices and their functionalization to act as a pseudo-homogeneous acid catalyst for biodiesel production, named Oligocat. The main advantage of Oligocat is given due to its reactional medium interaction. Initially, oligocat is a solid catalyst soluble in the alcoholic phase, acting as a homogeneous catalyst, providing better mass transfer of the catalytic groups to the reaction medium, and as the course of the reaction happens, Oligocat migrates to the glycerol phase, also providing the advantage of easy separation of the biodiesel. Oligocat was synthesized through polymerization of aromatic hydroxy acids, followed by a chemical functionalization applying the sulfonation technique. Characterization of the catalysts was carried out by infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), gel permeation chromatography (GPC), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The synthesized oligomers presented 5357 g·mol−1 (Mw) and 3909 g·mol−1 (Mn), with a moderate thermal resistance of approximately 175 °C. By sulfonation reaction, it was possible to obtain a high content of sulphonic groups of nearly 70 mol%, which provided the catalytic activity to the oligomeric matrix. With the mentioned physical–chemical properties, Oligocat is chemically designed to convert second generation feedstock to biodiesel efficiently. Preliminary investigation using Oligocat for biodiesel production resulted in conversion rates higher than 96.5 wt.%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Renewable Functional Polymeric Materials)
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16 pages, 4276 KiB  
Article
Development of Highly Crystalline Polylactic Acid with β-Crystalline Phase from the Induced Alignment of Electrospun Fibers
by Coro Echeverría, Irene Limón, Alexandra Muñoz-Bonilla, Marta Fernández-García and Daniel López
Polymers 2021, 13(17), 2860; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym13172860 - 25 Aug 2021
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 3111
Abstract
Polylactic acid (PLA) is one of the known synthetic polymers with potential piezoelectric activity but this property is directly related to both the crystalline structure and crystalline degree. Depending on the process conditions, PLA can crystallize in three different forms: α-, β-, and [...] Read more.
Polylactic acid (PLA) is one of the known synthetic polymers with potential piezoelectric activity but this property is directly related to both the crystalline structure and crystalline degree. Depending on the process conditions, PLA can crystallize in three different forms: α-, β-, and γ- form, with β-crystalline phase being the piezoelectric one. To obtain this crystalline structure, transformation of α to β is required. To do so, the strategies followed so far consisted in annealing or/and stretching of previously obtained PLA in the form of films or fibers, that is, additional post-processing steps. In this work, we are able to obtain PLA fibers with high macromolecular alignment, as demonstrated by SEM, and in the β polymorph, as detected by X-ray diffraction (XRD) without the requirement of post-processing. For that, PLA fibers were prepared by using an electrospinning coupled to a drum collector. This set up and the optimization of the parameters (voltage flow-rate, and drum collector speed) induced molecular stretching giving rise to uniaxially oriented and highly aligned fibers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Renewable Functional Polymeric Materials)
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28 pages, 8878 KiB  
Article
Fabrication, Modification, and Characterization of Lignin-Based Electrospun Fibers Derived from Distinctive Biomass Sources
by Amina Abdel Meguid Attia, Khadiga Mohamed Abas, Ahmed Ali Ahmed Nada, Mona Abdel Hamid Shouman, Alena Opálková Šišková and Jaroslav Mosnáček
Polymers 2021, 13(14), 2277; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym13142277 - 12 Jul 2021
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3318
Abstract
From the environmental point of view, there is high demand for the preparation of polymeric materials for various applications from renewable and/or waste sources. New lignin-based spun fibers were produced, characterized, and probed for use in methylene blue (MB) dye removal in this [...] Read more.
From the environmental point of view, there is high demand for the preparation of polymeric materials for various applications from renewable and/or waste sources. New lignin-based spun fibers were produced, characterized, and probed for use in methylene blue (MB) dye removal in this study. The lignin was extracted from palm fronds (PF) and banana bunch (BB) feedstock using catalytic organosolv treatment. Different polymer concentrations of either a plasticized blend of renewable polymers such as polylactic acid/polyhydroxybutyrate blend (PLA-PHB-ATBC) or polyethylene terephthalate (PET) as a potential waste material were used as matrices to generate lignin-based fibers by the electrospinning technique. The samples with the best fiber morphologies were further modified after iodine handling to ameliorate and expedite the thermostabilization process. To investigate the adsorption of MB dye from aqueous solution, two approaches of fiber modification were utilized. First, electrospun fibers were carbonized at 500 °C with aim of generating lignin-based carbon fibers with a smooth appearance. The second method used an in situ oxidative chemical polymerization of m-toluidine monomer to modify electrospun fibers, which were then nominated by hybrid composites. SEM, TGA, FT-IR, BET, elemental analysis, and tensile measurements were employed to evaluate the composition, morphology, and characteristics of manufactured fibers. The hybrid composite formed from an OBBL/PET fiber mat has been shown to be a promising adsorbent material with a capacity of 9 mg/g for MB dye removal. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Renewable Functional Polymeric Materials)
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