Rational development of a unique family of renewable polymers

Abstract

A unique family of renewable polymers has been constructed through facile chemical and physical approaches. In viewing of the abundant and renewable characteristics of starch, cellulose, chitosan and alginate, they are adopted as starting materials. Lactic acid and carbon dioxide, which can be regarded as derivates of starch, are also adopted as starting materials since both of them are abundant, non-toxic and renewable. For sake of making the intension to be carried out easily, the applied chemical or physical approaches are as facile as possible. After two decades of effort, a variety of polymers with versatile properties such as improved mechanical strength, good adsorption or loading capacity and various intelligent behaviors have been tailor-made. These polymers are designed systematically instead of obtaining at random. Herein, our ideas and the strategies for developing the polysaccharide-based renewable polymers are elucidated. It is expected that what presented in this article could stimulate more ideas to develop renewable polymers and bring brighter prospect of the polysaccharide-family.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

polysaccharide / lactic acid / carbon dioxide / renewable polymer / systematic development / strategy

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Disclosure of potential conflicts of interests

The author declares that there is no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful for the researches supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province of China (Grant Nos. 2002J021, 2006J0441, 2010J01291, and 2015J01201).

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