02 Jun Recent scientific articles shed light on SPECIFIC POLYMERS’ active contribution to the development of sustainable materials

SPECIFIC POLYMERS places significant emphasis on green material chemistry and biomass valorization as key elements of its research and development endeavors. The company is actively involved in numerous industrial and collaborative projects dealing with the development of bio-based substitutes to depletable resources and  focusing on their industrial feasibility.  

As part of these research efforts, one of the first objectives is to identify bio-based building-blocks capable of replacing toxic and petro-based epoxy resins. Additionally, particular attention is devoted to overcome the challenges related to the end-of-life phase of thermoset materials, which are characterized by limited reprocessability, reparability, and recyclability. In line with these objectives, two noteworthy scientific articles have been published, paving the way on novel advancements in the field. 

Biobased epoxy reactive diluents prepared from monophenol derivatives: effect on viscosity and glass transition temperature of epoxy resins

Vanillin-Based Epoxy Vitrimers: Looking at the Cystamine Hardener from a Different Perspective 

The second article explores the concept of vitrimers in thermoset materials. Vitrimer chemistry is an emerging field that combines the characteristics of glassy materials and polymers to create a new class of materials with unique properties. The term “vitrimer” is derived from the words “vitreous” and “polymer”, highlighting the glass-like nature and polymer backbone of these materials. Vitrimer chemistry has gained significant attention in recent years due to its potential for creating versatile and adaptive materials. Vitrimer materials are based on dynamic covalent bonds, which can undergo reversible chemical reactions under specific stimuli. The dynamic covalent bonds, such as disulfide, imine, or boronic ester bonds, provide vitrimers with the ability to undergo controlled bond exchange reactions. This exchange of bonds enables vitrimers to be reprocessed, reshaped, and repaired, similar to thermoplastics, while retaining their mechanical strength and stability. In this study, we investigated the use of a bio-based aliphatic disulfide derived from cystamine as a hardener in combination with a vanillin-derived bio-sourced epoxy to create bio-based epoxy vitrimers. The aim of this article is to present a comparative analysis between cystamine, the bio-based aliphatic disulfide, and an aromatic disulfide benchmark hardener derived from petroleum resources. The research conducted here revealed that the presence of the aliphatic hardener had a substantial impact not only on the reactivity but, more importantly, on the dynamic properties of the resulting epoxy vitrimer material. Intriguingly, the study demonstrated an unexpected accelerating effect on the dynamic exchanges, which provides interesting insights into the behavior of these bio-based materials. 

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More information on vitrimer materials 

Further information on the concept of vitrimers and their application in enhancing the recyclability of thermoset materials can be found at https://specificpolymers.com/recyclability-purpose-vitrimers-strategy/.