(226br) Polymerization of Castor Oil in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide
AIChE Annual Meeting
2014
2014 AIChE Annual Meeting
Materials Engineering and Sciences Division
Poster Session: Materials Engineering & Sciences (08A - Polymers)
Monday, November 17, 2014 - 6:00pm to 8:00pm
Biobased polymers are desired to replace traditional polymers made from petrochemicals in order to be more environmentally friendly and decrease dependence on foreign oil. Vegetable oils are a suitable renewable biobased starting material due to their availability and low cost. In this work, castor oil is polymerized in supercritical CO2. The effect of temperature, pressure, reaction time and initiator amount on the molecular weight is studied. The thermal properties of the polymers are compared.