For almost a century, petrochemical-based monomers like acrylates have been widely used as the basis for coatings, resins, and paints. The development of sustainable alternatives, integrating the principles of green chemistry in starting material, synthesis process, and product function, offers tremendous challenges for science and society. Here, we report on alkoxybutenolides as a bio-based alternative for acrylates and the formation of high-performance coatings. Starting from biomass-derived furfural and an environmentally benign photochemical conversion using visible light and oxygen in a flow reactor provides the alkoxybutenolide monomers. This is followed by radical (co)polymerization, which results in coatings with tunable properties for applications on distinct surfaces like glass or plastic. The performance is comparable to current petrochemical-derived industrial coatings.

A series of asymmetric and symmetric diols were prepared in high yields from biomass-derived feedstocks 5-hydroxymethyl furfural (HMF) and 2,5-diformyl furan (DFF) as potential replacements for bisphenol A (BPA). The diols were screened for estrogenic, androgenic, antiandrogenic, and antithyroid activities in reporter gene assays. Several of the low molecular weight asymmetric diols did not exhibit activity in any of the assays and thus have promise as potentially more sustainable alternatives to BPA.

A simple and general strategy to construct photo-crosslinkable polymers by introducing sidechain 1,2-dithiolanes based on natural thioctic acid is presented. The disulfide five-membered rings act both as light-absorbing and dynamic...

Paints and coatings are widely used in modern society and their current production is mainly dependent on the petrochemical industry. The establishment of processes using sustainable alternative monomers based on...

The curing of bis-methacrylate–styrene resins initiated by the cobalt catalyzed decomposition of cumyl hydroperoxide is monitored at ambient temperatures in situ by EPR and Raman spectroscopy.