Bio-Based Thermosetting Resins from Waste Cooking Oil

Abstract

In order to face the environmental concern about the use of traditional fossil-based monomers for the production of thermosetting resins, herein this study reports the synthesis of bio-based materials from waste cooking oil (WCO). In this context, this study explores the epoxidation-acrylation strategy for the synthesis of the starting functionalized oil for the production of thermosetting resins composed of only WCO-derived monomers or in combination with terpenic comonomers such as limonene and myrcene. Furthermore, employing myrcene as comonomer produces thermosetting resins that reveal the best properties in terms of mechanical strength if compared to the homopolymer ones.