Medicine (all); Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (all); General Medicine; General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Abstract :
[en] Sustainable polymers are materials derived from renewable, recycled and waste carbon resources and their combinations, which at the end of life can be recycled, biodegraded or composted. Sustainable polymers also exhibit reduced environmental impact throughout their life cycle. This Primer presents an overview of the research in and potential of sustainable polymers, with a focus on their life cycle, synthetic routes from renewable carbon feedstocks, production, material characterization, applications, end of life, data reproducibility and limitations faced, and provides a brief outlook. The Primer also briefly covers other carbon feedstocks such as carbon dioxide and wastes, including agricultural and woody residues. Although still in their infancy, new sustainable polymers are already finding applications in packaging, automotive parts and 3D printing. This Primer also discusses the headwinds facing the adoption of sustainable polymers, including complexities of recycling and composting, manufacturing scale-up, data reproducibility, deposition and potential solutions. Development of sustainable polymers will accelerate the age of sustainable polymers and create a truly circular economy for plastics by reducing production and use of virgin plastics from finite resources.
Disciplines :
Chemistry
Author, co-author :
Mohanty, Amar K. ; Bioproducts Discovery and Development Centre, Department of Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada ; School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada
Wu, Feng ; Department of Chemical Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, China
Hakkarainen, Minna ; Department of Fibre and Polymer Technology, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
Raquez, Jean-Marie ; Université de Mons - UMONS > Faculté des Sciences > Service des Matériaux Polymères et Composites
Mielewski, Deborah F.; Ford Research and Innovation Center, Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, United States
Narayan, Ramani; Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Michigan State University, Lansing, United States
Netravali, Anil N. ; Department of Human Centered Design, Cornell University, Ithaca, United States
Misra, Manjusri ; Bioproducts Discovery and Development Centre, Department of Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada ; School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada
The authors thank the financial support of the Ontario Research Fund, Research Excellence Program; Round 9 (ORF-RE09) Ontario Ministry of Colleges and Universities; the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA)/University of Guelph — Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance; the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC); and the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) through Bioindustrial Innovation Canada (BIC) Bioproducts AgSci Cluster Program. The Université de Mons (UMONS) is grateful to the European Commission and Wallonia for the financial support in the frame of the FEDER-LCFM project.
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