The design of industrial products based on bioresources is a challenging issue. Modification of starch, by hydrophobic chemical substituents, results in an innovative hydrophobic material. Herein, the hydrophobic part of the derivative, comprised of octadienyl chains, is introduced through catalytic butadiene telomerization. The process is efficiently conducted on starch in its granular form in an aqueous medium using hydrosoluble palladium complexes. After optimization, a turnover number (TON) of up to 550 was achieved in the presence of [(pi-allyl)PdCl](2) catalyst and, unusually, by using dimethylisosorbide as a cosolvent.

Humankind is facing a climate and energy crisis which demands global and prompt actions to minimize the negative impacts on the environment and on the lives of millions of people. Among all the disciplines which have an important role to play, chemistry has a chance to rethink the way molecules are made and find innovations to decrease the overall anthropic footprint on the environment. In this paper, we will provide a review of the existing knowledge but also recent advances on the manufacturing and end uses of acrylamide-based polymers following the “green chemistry” concept and 100 years after the revolutionary publication of Staudinger on macromolecules. After a review of raw material sourcing options (fossil derivatives vs. biobased), we will discuss the improvements in monomer manufacturing followed by a second part dealing with polymer manufacturing processes and the paths followed to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions. In the following section, we will see how the polyacrylamides help reduce the environmental footprint of end users in various fields such as agriculture or wastewater treatment and discuss in more detail the fate of these molecules in the environment by looking at the existing literature, the regulations in place and the procedures used to assess the overall biodegradability. In the last section, we will review macromolecular engineering principles which could help enhance the degradability of said polymers when they reach the end of their life cycle.

Mesnager, Julien Quettier, Claude Lambin, Anne Rataboul, Franck Perrard, Alain Pinel, CatherineNowadays, the preparation of bio-based polymers remains a challenging issue. The modification of starch by hydrophobic chemical substitutions results in an innovative material. We introduced the hydrophobic part of the derivative via catalytic butadiene telomerization using exclusively water as solvent in the presence of surfactants. In this paper, we describe the influence of the nature of the surfactant on the reaction, CTAB (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide) giving the best reactivity. Moreover, some physicochemical properties of modified starches are evaluated showing their hydrophobic behaviours