Development of biomass-based functional polymers

October 12, 2020

New carbon-neutral material developed for sustainable society

A joint research group of the Interdisciplinary Research Center for Catalytic Chemistry, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, and RIKEN CSRS has developed a novel functional polymer made from biomass.

To develop the new polymer, two biomass-based compounds with different properties were precoupled and used as monomer for polycondensation. It is a copolymer in which ricinoleic acid skeleton and 4-hydroxycinnamic acid skeleton are regularly and alternatively arranged. This polymer changes the number of substituents (methoxy-group) on the 4-hydroxycinnamic acid skeleton depending on the combination of raw materials, thereby showing different mechanical and thermal properties.

The new polymer is expected to be applied for development of new biomass-based rubber materials and film materials, as well as transparent materials.

Original article

RSC. Advances doi:10.1039/D0RA05671E

A. Yamamoto, K. Nemoto, M. Yoshida, Y. Tominaga, Y. Imai, S. Ata, Y. Takenaka, H. Abe, K. Sato,

"Improving thermal and mechanical properties of biomass-based polymers using structurally ordered polyesters from ricinoleic acid and 4-hydroxycinnamic acids".

Contact

Yasumasa Takenaka; Research Scientist

Hideki Abe; Team Leader

Bioplastic Research Team