Synthesis of vegetable-oil based polymer by terpolymerization of epoxidized soybean oil, propylene oxide and carbon dioxide

•Renewable resources to replace the non-sustainable monomers in production of polymer•Utilization of CO2 may address partly the global warming issue.•Epoxidized soybean oil was used as a starting material in polymerization reaction.•Polycarbonate was synthesized via greener route.

Although carbon dioxide (CO2) is well known as one of the major green-house gases, it is also an economical C1 resource. Thus, CO2 has been regarded as an appealing starting material for the synthesis of polymers, like polycarbonates by the reaction with epoxides. Herein the reaction between natural epoxidized soybean oil (ESO), propylene oxide (PO) and CO2 under high pressure (4.0 MPa) with the presence of Co-Zn double metal cyanide (Co-Zn DMC) catalyst was studied. Temperature and reaction time were varied accordingly and the products obtained were characterized by FTIR, GPC and 1H NMR. The results obtained indicate the formation of polycarbonates in the samples collected with yields vary from 60 to 85%. The number average molecular weight (Mn) of the resultant polymer prepared at reaction temperature of 80 °C and reaction time of 6 h can reach up to 6498 g/mol.

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