Metathesis with Oleochemicals: New Approaches for the Utilization of Plant Oils as Renewable Resources in Polymer Science

Due to depleting fossil resources, the ever increasing emission of greenhouse gases and toxic waste, as well as the inefficient utilization of our available resources, we have to implement the principles of green chemistry whenever and wherever possible. Plant oils are already the most important renewable resource for the chemical industry. Due to their inherent double-bond functionality, they offer the possibility of being transformed via several very efficient catalytic processes. Especially, new developments in olefin metathesis allow the chemist to directly polymerize or introduce a variety of functional groups to these renewable resources in an efficient manner. Therefore, olefin metathesis with plant-oil-derived fatty acids and their derivatives can contribute to a sustainable development of our future, since this approach has great potential for the substitution of currently used petrochemicals and a variety of value-added chemical intermediates, especially for the polymer industry, can be derived from these resources in a straightforward fashion. This contribution will address and discuss the most recent developments in this field of research.