Green and sustainable route to carbohydrate vinyl ethers for accessing bio-inspired materials with a unique microspherical morphology

Synthesizing chemicals and materials based on renewable sources is one of the main tasks of modern science. Carbohydrates represent excellent renewable natural raw materials, that are eco-friendly, inexpensive and biologically compatible. Herein, we developed a green vinylation procedure for carbohydrates using readily available calcium carbide. Various carbohydrates were utilized as starting materials resulting in mono-, di- and tetra-vinyl ethers in high to excellent yields (81-92 %).

The synthesized bio-based vinyl ethers were utilized as monomers in free radical and cationic polymerizations. A unique combination of smooth surface and intrinsic microcompartments was achieved in the synthesized materials. Two types of bio-based materials were prepared involving microspheres and "Swiss cheese" polymers. Scanning electron microscopy with built-in ion beam cutting was applied to reveal the spatial hierarchical structures in three-dimensional space.

Reference: ChemSusChem, 2017, Accepted manuscript

DOI: 10.1002/cssc.201701489

On-line version: http://doi.org/10.1002/cssc.201701489