With rising environmental concerns and depletion of petrochemical resources, biomass-based chemicals have been paid more attention. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plasticizers derived from biomass resources (vegetable oil, cardanol, vegetable fatty acid, glycerol and citric acid) have been widely studied to replace petroleum-based o-phthalate plasticizers. These bio-based plasticizers mainly include epoxidized plasticizer, polyester plasticizer, macromolecular plasticizer, flame retardant plasticizer, citric acid ester plasticizer, glyceryl ester plasticizer and internal plasticizer. Bio-based plasticizers with the advantages of renewability, degradability, hypotoxicity, excellent solvent resistant extraction and plasticizing performances make them potential to replace o-phthalate plasticizers partially or totally. In this review, we classify different types of bio-based plasticizers according to their chemical structure and function, and highlight recent advances in multifunctional applications of bio-based plasticizers in PVC products. This study will increase the interest of researchers in bio-based plasticizers and the development of new ideas in this field.

Introducing renewable tung oil into the environment-friendly plasticizer production via clean and efficient strategies to substitute toxic dioctyl phthalate (DOP) holds potential application value to reduce pollution and improve human health. Here we reported two strategies for production of epoxy plasticizers via phase transfer catalyst and thiol−ene reaction using tung oil as starting material. Phase transfer catalyst (C 17 H 30 ClN) 3 O 40 PW 12 •xH 2 O was synthesized and used in acid-free catalytic process. The optimum epoxidation reaction and thiol−ene reaction parameters were investigated. Epoxy value of the obtained epoxy tung oil methyl ester (ETM) and tung-oil-based epoxy plasticizer (TEP) reached 4.9% and 5.2%. Poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) films plasticized with ETM and TEP showed better thermal stability and solvent resistance than DOP. Plasticizing efficiency of ETM and TEP reached 104.1% and 101.5%, respectively. In conclusion, epoxy plasticizers were produced in sustainable and environmentally friendly strategies using tung oil as raw material and can completely replace toxic DOP used in flexible PVC films.

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Polymers from renewable resources are receiving tremendous attention due to the increasing concerns on the depletion of fossil oils and deteriorated environments. Cardanol, as an abundant and renewable chemical raw material, has been widely used for the production of renewable polymer materials via converting into various of chemical monomers with active functional groups. This comprehensive review deals with various aspects of cardanol as a starting material the preparing various polymer and polymer composites such as benzoxazine resins, phenolic resin, polyurethanes, epoxy resin, vinyl ester polymers, polyamide and cyanate ester resins. The assessment of the future prospects for the use of cardanol to synthesise novel and valuable renewable materials is presented.