Biobased polymers are polymers whose carbon skeleton derives, wholly or partly, from a renewable feedstock rather than from petroleum. The feedstock can be a sugar, a vegetable oil, a terpene, or a lignin fragment, and the monomer is obtained by fermentation or by chemical conversion [1]. Being biobased says nothing about biodegradability, because a bio-derived polyethylene is chemically identical to the fossil one and does not degrade faster [2]. The properties of the resulting polymer follow from the repeat unit, so a rigid ring in the backbone raises the glass transition while a long aliphatic chain lowers it [3]. The cost of the monomer, not the polymerisation, is what keeps several biobased grades out of the market [4]. The end-of-life route has to be specified at the design stage, because a biobased but non-degradable polymer still needs a waste stream that can handle it [5].
- renewable feedstock
- biobased monomer
- fermentation
- bio-derived polyethylene
- glass transition
- end-of-life
- drop-in replacement
References
- Karimi Zarchi, M.A.; Tayefi, M.; Tirgir, F.; Sabzalian, M.R.; Synthesis, characterization and in vitro antimicrobial study of bioactive polyesters derived from new biobased flame retardant aromatic diacid monomer containing taurine moiety. Polymer Degradation and Stability 2012, 97, 392-403, 10.1016/j.polymdegradstab.2011.12.002.
- Lu, Y.; Zhang, K.; Synthesis and properties of biobased mono-benzoxazine resins from natural renewable pterostilbene. European Polymer Journal 2021, 156, 110607, 10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2021.110607.
- Wang, D.; Qu, J.; Synthesis of high strength, high elasticity, self-healing deep eutectic ionic elastomers based on multiple non-covalent interactions by using biobased glycerol monomer HPA for strain sensors. Polymer 2025, 328, 128423, 10.1016/j.polymer.2025.128423.
- Alexakis, A.E.; Ayyachi, T.; Mousa, M.; Olsén, P.; Malmström, E.; 2-Methoxy-4-Vinylphenol as a Biobased Monomer Precursor for Thermoplastics and Thermoset Polymers. Polymers 2023, 15, 2168, 10.3390/polym15092168.
- Chen, G.; Chen, Y.; Gong, J.; Zhu, J.; Tian, Y.; Liu, Y.; Synthesis of biobased polyamides for hot melt adhesives: Utilizing renewable dimer acids and 1,5-pentanediamine monomers. Polymer 2025, 327, 128368, 10.1016/j.polymer.2025.128368.