Readily biodegradable vinyl polymers from biobased resources

The project aims at developing deep and relevant knowledge in polymer chemistry (monomer synthesis and polymerization procedures) and structure-property relationships (biodegradability and properties) with the aim to accelerate the capacity to transition into more sustainable materials. The main goals of the are: I. Design and synthesis of monomers that upon radical polymerization result in polymers with linkers in the main chain that are susceptible to biodegradation to prevent formation of microplastics and accumulation after end-of-use.  II. Design and synthesis of biobased monomers available from biomass, ultimately with functionality identified in goal I. III. Polymerization of the synthesized monomers and characterization of the corresponding polymers, including their biodegradability.  IV. Suspension polymerization of the most promising candidates using industrially relevant conditions to investigate encapsulating efficiency and subsequent expansion, to benchmark against commercially available thermo-expandable microspheres.