Use of renewable resource vanillin for the preparation of benzoxazine resin and reactive monomeric surfactant containing oxazine ring

A renewable natural resource, vanillin, is used to synthesize polybenzoxazine with the expected desirable benzoxazine properties as well as a high char yield of 55.3%. The synthesized monomer provides an unused aldehyde group from vanillin. The aldehyde can be further reacted with other materials to enhance properties. As a model, the unused aldehyde is reacted with amine terminated poly(ethylene oxide) to form a surfactant which retains 1,3-benzoxazine's reactivity. The chemical structure of the synthesized monomers, surfactant and polymers are characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (H-1 NMR). Thermal properties are also characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Miniemulsions with stability up to 2 weeks are created with the newly synthesized surfactant and polystyrene. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) indicates 627 nm as the average diameter of the emulsion droplets. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.