Research progress in bio-based synthetic rubber

Abstract

As entering the 21st century, the development of petrochemical synthetic rubber is unsustainable, and is gradually constrainted by energy saving and emission reduction. The production of natural rubber is limited and affected by factors such as climates,epidemic diseases, etc. China's natural rubber self-supporting is insufficient, rely heavily on imports. In the face of the above challenges, the development of a new generation of bio-based rubber resources independent of fossil resources from solar energy is an effective means to solve the shortage of rubber resources and the only way to ensure the safe, long-term and stable supply of global rubber resources. At present, there are two main ideas for the preparation of bio-based synthetic rubber. The research progress of two types of bio-based synthetic rubber was mainly reviewed in this paper. One is to further convert bio-based monomers (such as ethanol) obtained by fermentation of biomass into conventional monomers (such as ethylene), then the bio-based conventional rubber such as bio-based ethylene propylene rubber and bio-based isoprene rubber will be prepared by a conventional synthetic process, and its performance is almost identical to that of a conventional non-bio-based engineering elastomer, and the existing engineering rubber can be directly replaced; the other is to prepare a novel structure of bio-based rubber materials through polymerization using the existing bio-based chemicals, such as itaconic acid, propylene glycol, succinic acid, etc. The raw materials can be easily obtained, the cost is low, and with the rapid development of fermentation technology, more and more bio-based chemicals will be available for selection and use, and bio-based synthetic rubber has bright prospects.

Keywords

• bio-based chemical
• biological rubber
• bio-based polyester rubber
• itaconate rubber