Vinyl esters are thermosets that have a large variety of applications, such as adhesives and corrosion resistant coatings. Majority of commercial vinyl esters are produced from fossil-based raw materials. Utilization of fossil resources causes several problems. In addition to their negative effect on environment, their global distribution is uneven, which leads to a dependency on fossil imports that may be impacted by political instabilities in exporting countries. Since thermosets have excellent properties and are used in many applications, biobased alternatives should be developed to alleviate aforementioned issues. Biomass is continuously produced in nature, and significant amounts of unused residual biomass are generated in industries, agriculture and forestry, which can be utilized in biorefining to give precursors for thermosets.
Furfural, a promising renewable platform compound, is derived from the dehydration of pentose sugars. Traditionally, it is produced from pentosan-rich byproducts of the food industry, such as corncobs or sugarcane bagasse. Furfural serves as a precursor for other furan derivatives, such as furfuryl alcohol. However, the use of furan as a building block for vinyl ester resins remains relatively unexplored.
In the current work, two furfural-based dimethacrylate monomers were developed. These compounds can be utilized in the production of novel vinyl ester resins. Cured resin specimens showed promising properties compared to their petroleum-based counterparts, such as comparable mechanical properties. Other aspects related to application of furans in vinyl ester resins are discussed in the presentation.