Vegetable oil-based polymeric materials: synthesis, properties, and applications

The use of vegetable oils as renewable raw materials for the synthesis of various monomers and polymeric materials is reviewed. Vegetable oils are generally considered to be the most important class of renewable resources, because of their ready availability and numerous applications. Recently, a variety of vegetable oil-based polymers have been prepared by free radical, cationic, olefin metathesis, and condensation polymerization. The polymers obtained display a wide range of thermophysical and mechanical properties from soft and flexible rubbers to hard and rigid plastics, which show promise as alternatives to petroleum-based plastics.