Terpene based elastomers: Synthesis, properties, and applications

Abstract

The limited source of fossil-fuel and the predominance of petroleum-based chemistry in the manufacturing of commodity polymers has generated tremendous interest in replacing the fossil source-based polymers with renewable counterparts. The field of sustainable elastomers has grown in the past three decades, from a few examples to a plethora of reports in modern polymer science and technology. Applications of elastomers are huge and vital for everyday living. The present review aims to portray a birds-eye view of various sustainable elastomers obtained from the wide family of acyclic terpenes (renewable feedstocks from different plant oils) via various polymerization techniques and their properties, as well as plausible developments in the future applications of sustainable polymers. Not only the homopolymers, but also their copolymers with both green and commercial fossil based comonomers, are reviewed.