Biomass materials derived from anethole: conversion and application

Renewable biomass has been attracting extensive attention because of its advantages over fossil fuels, including renewability, ready availability and abundance. Anethole, as a kind of aromatic inedible plant oil, has been converted to various functional materials by skillful designing and preparation. As for the chemical structure of anethole, the propenyl group enables anethole not only to co-polymerize with electro-deficient monomers by the initiation of free radicals, but also to undergo cationic copolymerization to form oligomers. The methoxy group enables anethole to be functionalized by other groups. Because of its high reactivity, anethole has been developed as a reliable monomer or precursor for diverse materials with potential applications, such as microsphere adsorbents, dielectric materials, and high-performance polymers. The results show that anethole is a promising candidate for replacement of petroleum-based raw materials. This review summarizes the chemical conversions and applications of anethole, which may offer some inspiration for the application of other biomass materials widely existing in or extracted from nature.