Novel Polymeric Materials from Vegetable Oils and Vinyl Monomers: Preparation, Properties, and Applications

Vegetable oils are considered to be among the most promising renewable raw materials for polymers, because of their ready availability, inherent biodegradability, and their many versatile applications. Research on and development of vegetable oil based polymeric materials, including thermosetting resins, biocomposites, and nanocomposites, hove attracted increasing attention in recent years. This Minireview focuses on the latest developments in the preparation, properties, and applications of vegetable oil based polymeric materials obtained by free radical, cationic, and olefin metathesis polymerizations. The novel vegetable oil based polymeric materials obtained range from soft rubbery materials to ductile or rigid plastics and to high-performance biocomposites and nonocomposites. These vegetable oil based polymeric materials display a wide range of thermophysical and mechanical properties and should find useful applications as alternatives to their petroleum-based counterparts.