Light-induced cross-linking of liquid monomers has found
widespread
applications in various fields, such as dentistry, coatings, tissue
engineering, and 3D printing. These processes typically rely on monomers
derived from petrochemicals, which are volatile in price and are becoming
increasingly depleted, compelling researchers to explore alternative
sources from forestry and agricultural crops. The renewability of
these resources makes them a promising option for developing substitutive
materials with similar or superior properties. The various structural
subunits in biomass offer alternative building blocks for petroleum-based
photopolymers including the double bond-containing and hydrophobic
fatty acids and terpenes, hydrophilic carbohydrates and proteins,
aromatic furfural compounds from carbohydrates, and phenolic moieties
in lignin. They can be transformed into photopolymers by the inherent
or chemically introduced photocurable bonds. This review seeks to
highlight recent advancements in transforming renewable platform chemicals
into photocurable systems for photopolymerization processes and examines
the thermomechanical properties and applications of the resulting
cured materials. Furthermore, potential issues for improvement are
also identified, such as the cost-effectiveness of biomass-based photopolymers
and the risk in competition with food production. The perspectives
on future directions for improving the renewability in this area are
also given.