Brand-new biomass-based vinyl polymers from 5-hydroxymethylfurfural

Abstract

The synthesis of novel biomass-based vinyl polymers from 5-(hydroxymethyl) furfural (HMF) as the starting material was accomplished. HMF or its methylated derivative, 5-(methoxymethyl) furfural was efficiently converted to its vinyl derivative by the Wittig reaction in a solid-liquid phase transfer process, followed by free radical polymerization in a bulk polymerization process. The structures of the obtained vinyl monomers and resulting polymers were conlirmed by using NMR spectroscopy, including 'H NMR, 113CNMR. C-H COSY, and C-H COLOC. Moreover, the resulting polymers were subjected to GPC, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and the polymer from 5-methoxymethyl-2-vinylfuran exhibited much better heal resistance than the corresponding polymer without methoxy group. © 2008 The Society of Polymer Science, Japan.