Efficient chemical transformations of epoxidized soybean oil to cross-linked polymers by phosphorus-containing nucleophiles and study their thermal properties

•Promising synthetic polymers obtained from ESBO by phosphorus-containing nucleophiles addition through the cross-linked polymerization.•Even though in absence of any type of curing agents, the polymers have significant thermal properties. • Therefore, they have great potential utilities in polymer science domains.

In this study, biodegradable environmental friendly phosphorus containing oligomers were prepared from renewable resources by an efficient ring-opening polymerization of epoxidized soybean oil using tetrafluoroboric acid as a catalyst in most of the cases. The resulted oligomers were characterized by infrared spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis and gel permeation chromatography. The results revealed that polymerized materials are highly cross-linked oligomers. The gel permeation chromatography showed that the polymers have low molecular weights. The thermal degradation mechanisms were studied and found that at ignition they produced good char residue. They had glass melting point temperatures ranging from −11 to 31 °C which is thermally stable below 200 °C.