Synthesis and applications of unsaturated cyclocarbonates

Great attention has always been paid to monomers bearing at least two reactive groups, one for copolymerization and one for further reaction, in particular, for cross-linking. Such reactive groups should be reactive enough for crosslinking but should not prevent any copolymerization of monomers. Cyclic carbonate groups are currently gaining increasing attention both from academic and industrial communities. Indeed, these functions allow better control in terms of spontaneous crosslinking reactions than other reactive groups and could also come from renewable resources such as glycerine or CO2. Although many papers report the use of cyclic carbonates for synthesis of linear polyurethanes, this present review is the first one that focuses on the synthesis and use of functional cyclocarbonate molecules. In the first part, the present review goes into details of the synthesis of carbonate groups. In the second part, this review is dedicated to the synthesis and the application of various monomers bearing cyclic carbonate groups to polymers.