CONTEXT

First, polymers derived from renewable ressources are gaining a great interest due in part to the rarefaction of fossil raw materials.

Second, as Bisphenol A ,a widely used building block molecule in epoxy resins, is now classified as reprotoxic », substitution of bisphenol A based epoxy resins by materials coming from renewables ressources is a challenging issue. 

TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION

The invention relates to a method for preparing epoxy resins from a mixture of epoxidized phenolic compounds, wherein said epoxidized phenolic compounds are obtained by the epoxidation of natural phenolic compounds selected from the group comprising simple phenol, acid-phenol, coumarin, naphthoquinone, stilbenoid, flavonoid, isoflavonoid, anthocyanin, condensed tannin and hydrolyzable tannin..

This invention presents a way to obtain new aromatic and polyaromatic epoxyde compounds resulting from renewable resources, which are miscible with amine hardeners under usual conditions of formulation and crosslinking, and which make it possible to control the crosslinking of the resulting epoxy resins.

This invention presents also new solutions for preparing vinyl ester resins from renewable resources.

BENEFITS

These aromatic and polyaromatic compounds are natural phenolic compounds resulting from the biomass and more particularly extracted from plants, trees, vine, grape or algae.

The epoxidation could be realised using epichlorhydrine obtained by a chemical reaction on glycerol, by-product of biodiesel process.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS

Thermoset epoxy resins are widely used in numerous industries, like coatings, adhesives, composites and electronic components encapsulation

DEVELOPMENT STAGE

Biobased epoxy resins were formulated from glycidyl ether of tannin catechin. Their thermal an mechanical are similar to commercial ones from diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA). Pilot-scale studies are in progress.

For further information, please contact us (Ref 03641-01)