Synthesis and Characterization of Sulfur-Based Polymers from Elemental Sulfur and Algae Oil

Abstract

Sulfur-based polymeric materials were obtained from surplus feedstock; elemental sulfur; and sustainable algae oil, Botryococcene, via inverse vulcanization. Reactions of elemental sulfur and Botryococcene at 185 °C produce polymeric materials with various weight ratios of sulfur and Botryococcene (5:5 to 9:1), depending on the feed ratio. In this study, these polymers have been characterized from several aspects using spectral analysis, thermoanalysis, and electrochemical analysis. When the composition of sulfur is more than 70 wt %, the polymer contains a residual sulfur element not incorporated in the polymer chains. The sulfur-based polymers can be pressed into intended shapes when heated at 120 °C. The polymers could serve as active materials for Li−S batteries. This investigation of structure and properties provides basic information for future applications.

Evaluation of properties of sulfur-based polymers obtained by inverse vulcanization: Techniques and challenges

“…The disappearance of the cis-alkenes characteristic signals in the spectra of the sulfur-rich copolymers provides an evidence for the successful formation of the copolymers. 25,30–32,34–38,45,64,66,68,69,71,72…”

“…Several studies have reported the use of XRD to investigate the structure of the inverse vulcanized copolymers obtained by reacting sulfur with monomers such as DCPD, cycloalkenes, diallyl disulfide (DADS), squalene, perillyl alcohol, algae oil, cardanol benzoxazines, soybean oil, farnesene, farnesol and myrcene. 25,30–32,34,51,68 Elemental sulfur was found to have a crystalline structure and showed a number of crystallinity peaks at 2θ = 23, 27, 28, 53, and 56. 76 On contrary, the XRD pattern of the inverse vulcanized copolymer showed no crystalline peaks.…”

A role for terpenoid cyclization in the atom economical polymerization of terpenoids with sulfur to yield durable composites

“…Materials made by inverse vulcanization can be durable polymers or composites in which polymeric sulfur domains, typically unstable at STP, are trapped and stabilized by the crosslinked network. Inverse vulcanization has proven successful for producing materials from a range of petrochemical and renewably-sourced olefins, 8 including terpenoids, [11][12][13][14][15] triglycerides, [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] fatty acids, [24][25][26][27] sorbitan esters, 28 amino acid derivatives, 29 guaiacol derivatives, 30 and cellulose/lignin derivatives. [31][32][33][34] Many applications for resulting materials have been noted, 35,36 as highlighted in the aforementioned references.…”

Copolymerization of a Bisphenol a Derivative and Elemental Sulfur by the RASP Process

“…Although inverse vulcanization was reported only a few years ago, its potential for facile production of versatile materials was quickly recognized. In a very short time, olefins derived from petroleum [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16], plant and animal sources [11,[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34] bacteria [28] and algae [35] have all proven to be successful monomers for the production of HSMs by inverse vulcanization. These HSMs have garnered significant attention for their potential as IR transparent lenses for thermal imaging [36], electrode materials [37,38] absorbents [11,13,[39][40][41], fertilizers [18,22], and structural materials [29,[42][43][44][45][46].…”