Synthesis of bio-based polyurethanes from jojoba oil

Abstract

Jojoba grows easily in harsh conditions and is the only plant species known to use liquid wax esters as a primary seed storage reserve. Jojoba oil is composed by two mono unsaturated hydrocarbon chains linked by an ester moiety and represents 50% of the weight of seeds. Hence, this atypical oil was, for the first time, dedicated to the synthesis of innovative polymer materials. Novel partially biobased polyurethanes materials were obtained with various structures. New biobased diol was first achieved by addition of mercaptoethanol by thiol-ene coupling on jojoba oil and characterized by ¹H NMR and ¹³C NMR. The functionalized oil was used to synthesize polyurethane prepolymers by catalyst-free reaction with various diisocyanates: 1,6-hexamethylene diisocyanate and 4,4-methylene diphenyl diisocyanate. After the addition of chain extenders, the obtained polyurethane materials were characterized by ¹H NMR, TGA, DSC, and DMA analyses. Various PUs were obtained in terms of flexibility and thermal stability.

Practical Applications: The synthesized jojoba oil-based PUs exhibit a good flexibility. Hence, these biobased PUs could replace petroleum-based polyurethanes in industry and particularly as coatings, binders or compounds for automotive and aircraft industries.

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