Polymers from Soybeans: The transesterification of triglycerides

This case study explores the transesterification of triglycerides from soybean oil into a variety of vinyl monomers - soy-based acrylic monomers (SBAs). This transesterification uses commercially available N-(hydroxyethyl)acrylamide as a reactant, was carried out in one synthetic step, ran at room temperature (minimizing energy use), and used only a catalytic amount of sodium hydroxide. These SBAs could be polymerized with themselves or in a copolymerization with common commodity monomers such as styrene, methyl methacrylate, and vinyl acetate. This behavior demonstrates the potential for SBAs to be incorporated into a range of common commodity polymers.

The case study is based on the following publication: Tarnavchyk,I.; Popadyuk, A.; Popadyuk, N.; Voronov, A. Synthesis and Free Radical Copolymerization of a Vinyl Monomer from Soybean Oil. ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2015, 3, 1618−1622. DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.5b00312

This case study was reviewed by Jennifer Tripp (University of San Francisco) and Jane Wissinger (University of Minnesota) prior to publication.