@Article{JRM.2012.634109,
AUTHOR = {Arne Rüdiger, Peter Hendil-Forssell, Cecilia Hedfors, Mats Martinelle, Stacy Trey, Mats Johansson},
TITLE = {Chemoenzymatic Route to Renewable Thermosets Based on  a Suberin Monomer},
JOURNAL = {Journal of Renewable Materials},
VOLUME = {1},
YEAR = {2013},
NUMBER = {2},
PAGES = {124--140},
URL = {http://www.techscience.com/jrm/v1n2/49672},
ISSN = {2164-6341},
ABSTRACT = {The present study describes the use of an epoxy functional fatty acid, 9,10-epoxy-18-hydroxyoctadecanoic acid 
(EFA), extracted from birch (Betula pendula) outer bark to produce thermosets. The purifi ed epoxy fatty acid 
was polymerized by enzyme-catalyzed polycondensation utilizing <i>Candida antarctica</i> lipase B (CalB) to form 
oligomers with targeted degrees of polymerization (DP) of 3, 6, and 9 and obtained DPs of 2.3, 5.9 and 7.3, 
respectively. It was determined that it is possible to fi rst enzymatically polymerize and aliphatically endcap 
the epoxy functional fatty acid resulting in controlled oligomer lengths while also maintaining the epoxy 
functionality for further reaction by main-chain homo-epoxy cationic photopolymerization. The enzymatic 
polymerized oligomers were characterized in terms of conversion of the residual epoxy groups (FT-IR), the 
thermal properties (DSC, TGA) and the purity by MALDI-TOF and <sup>1</sup>
H-NMR. The amorphous thermoset 
fi lms with varying degrees of crosslinking resulting from the cationically photopolymerized oligomers, were 
characterized in terms of their thermal properties and residual epoxy content (FT-IR ATR). The crosslinked 
polyesters formed insoluble, amorphous, and transparent fi lms. This work demonstrates that thermoset fi lms 
with designed properties can be effectively made with the use of forest products to reduce the petroleumbased plastics market.},
DOI = {10.7569/JRM.2012.634109}
}