Sustainable strategies for the development of new macromolecular materials

• Grant number: 18/24407-6
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Visiting Researcher Grant - International
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Materials and Metallurgical Engineering - Nonmetallic Materials
• Principal Investigator: Talita Martins Lacerda
• Grantee: Talita Martins Lacerda
• Visiting researcher: Alessandro Gandini
• Visiting researcher institution: Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA), France
• Host Institution: Escola de Engenharia de Lorena (EEL). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Lorena , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Polymers prepared from renewable resources are the focus of activities involving both academic and industrial actors. This is due to the growing interest in products and processes that consider the concept of sustainability, which involves, among other principles, the rational use of natural resources instead of fossil resources for the preparation of chemicals and materials. Renewable polymers can be obtained directly from natural sources or synthesized by a sequence of chemical modification reactions of substances directly or indirectly extracted from them. Polymers that are naturally available can be isolated from plant biomass (polysaccharides, natural rubber, among others), animal sources (chitin, proteins, among others) and from biotechnological processes (mainly polyhydroxyalkanoates). Often, some of them present technical limitations, which motivates the development of strategies related to chemical modifications and/or the association with other materials of different natures to produce blends and (nano)composites. Polymer synthesis is a broader strategy and involves the preparation of polyesters, polyurethanes, polyamides and polycarbonates having the most diverse molecular structures and properties, starting from monomers which are naturally available as such, or are synthesized from polymers naturally available. Sugars, furans, terpenes, triglycerides and fatty acids, carboxylic diacids, hydroxyacids and polyols, such as itaconic acid, succinic acid, adipic acid, ferulic acid, levulinic acid, vanillin, vanillic acid, for example, are widely employed in the development of novel polymers and illustrate this strategy. The present solicitation is based on the more than 50 years of experience of Prof. Dr. Alessandro Gandini in the development of new polymers from non-fossil resources. In addition to assisting a series of ongoing projects coordinated by different researchers of São Paulo state, a post-graduation discipline will be offered. It is worth mentioning that Dr. Gandini is a Collaborating Researcher of an ongoing research project funded by FAPESP (2017/16062-6), under the coordination of Profa. Dra. Talita Martins Lacerda. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

RIBEIRO, BRUNA O.; VALERIO, VICTOR S.; GANDINI, ALESSANDRO; LACERDA, TALITA M.. Copolymers of xylan-derived furfuryl alcohol and natural oligomeric tung oil derivatives. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, v. 164, p. 2497-2511, DEC 1 2020. (18/24407-6, 17/16062-6)

LACERDA, TALITA M.; GANDINI, ALESSANDRO. The cationic polymerization of tung oil and its fatty-acid methyl ester. INDUSTRIAL CROPS AND PRODUCTS, v. 157, DEC 1 2020. (18/24407-6, 17/16062-6)