Sustainable Synthesis of Renewable Terpenoid-Based (Meth)acrylates Using the CHEM21 Green Metrics Toolkit

Terpenes and their subclass terpenoids are natural products, extracted from various plants and trees. As a result of their structural diversity, they offer versatile functionalization possibilities when incorporated into synthetic polymers. This investigation aims at synthesizing a range of terpenoid-based (meth)acrylates via widely reported or less conventional methods and at screening these different synthetic methodologies in terms of their green credentials. The underlying goal has been to both qualitatively and quantitatively determine the most atom efficient and sustainable pathway with the help of the recently developed CHEM21 green metrics toolkit. At the same time, this study shows the ease of this evaluation system and encourages a more widespread use of this toolkit not only in polymer science but also in other areas of chemistry.