Nickel-Electrocatalyzed Synthesis of Bifuran-Based Monomers

Bifuran motifs can be accessed with nickel-bipyridine electrocatalyzed homocouplings of bromine-substituted methyl furancarboxylates, which, in turn, can be prepared from hemicellulose-derived furfural. The described protocol uses sustainable carbon-based graphite electrodes in the simplest setup - an undivided cell with constant current electrolysis. The reported method avoids using a sacrificial anode by employing triethanolamine as an electron donor.

Recyclable Polycarbosilane from a Biomass-Derived Bifuran-Based Monomer

Two of the most fundamental principles for the development of next-generation polymers are production from renewable biomass and well-designed recyclability. Bifuran derivatives represent promising building blocks for functional polymers on account of their high rigidity, strong interchain interactions, and extended π-conjugation. In this study, a polycarbosilane containing a bifuran-based repeat unit was prepared via the hydrosilylation of dihydrosilylbifuran and 1,5-hexadiene. The crystallinity and thermal properties of the bifuran-containing polycarbosilane were superior to those of a corresponding polycarbosilane containing a single-furan-based repeat unit and comparable to those of the benzene-based analogue due to the rigidity and interchain interactions of the poly(bifurancarbosilane) unit. The bifuran moiety in the repeat unit causes a red-shift and strong UV absorption of the polycarbosilane compared to that containing the single-furan-based and benzene-based repeat units. The bifuran moiety also renders the resulting polycarbosilane strongly fluorescent, while the polycarbosilanes containing the benzene-based and single-furan-ring-based repeat units did not emit fluorescence. These desirable photoproperties result from the extension of the σ-π conjugation in the repeat unit. Furthermore, the chemical recyclability is a unique and attractive property of the bifuran-based polycarbosilane; upon treatment with trifluoroacetic acid, bifuran can be regenerated as the monomer, while trifluoroacetate silane can be up-cycled to the corresponding polysiloxane. Thus, the bifuran motif endows polycarbosilane with improved thermal, optical, and recycling properties.

High Oxygen Barrier Polyester from 3,3'-Bifuran-5,5'-dicarboxylic Acid

An exceptional oxygen barrier polyester prepared from a new biomass-derived monomer, 3,3'-bifuran-5,5'-dicarboxylic acid, is reported. When exposed to air, the furan-based polyester cross-links and gains O₂ permeability 2 orders of magnitude lower than initially, resulting in performance comparable to the best polymers in this class, such as ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymers. The cross-links hinder the crystallization of amorphous samples, also rendering them insoluble. The process was observable via UV-vis measurements, which showed a gradual increase of absorbance between wavelengths of 320 and 520 nm in free-standing films. The structural trigger bringing about these changes appears subtle: the polyester containing 5,5'-disubstituted 3,3'-bifuran moieties cross-linked, whereas the polyester with 5,5'-disubstituted 2,2'-bifuran moieties was inert. The 3,3'-bifuran-based polyester is effectively a semicrystalline thermoplastic, which is slowly converted into a cross-linked material with intriguing material properties once sufficiently exposed to ambient air.

Bio-based monomers for amide-containing sustainable polymers

The field of sustainable polymers from renewable feedstocks is a fast-reviving field after the decades-long domination of petroleum-based polymers. Amide-containing polymers exhibit a wide range of properties depending on the type of amide (primary, secondary, and tertiary), amide density, and other molecular structural parameters (co-existing groups, molecular weight, and topology). Engineering amide groups into sustainable polymers via the "monomer approach" is an industrially proven strategy, while bio-based monomers are of enormous importance to bridge the gap between renewable sources and amide-containing sustainable polymers (AmSPs). This feature article aims at conceptualizing the monomer-design philosophy behind most of the reported AmSPs and is organized by discussing di-functional monomers for step-growth polymerization, cyclic monomers for ring-opening polymerization and amide-containing monomers for chain-growth polymerization. We also give a perspective on AmSPs with respect to monomer design and performance enhancement.

Renewable Furfural-Based Polyesters Bearing Sulfur-Bridged Difuran Moieties with High Oxygen Barrier Properties

With the goal of achieving high barrier with bio-based materials, for example, for packaging applications, a series of novel furfural-based polyesters bearing sulfide-bridged difuran dicarboxylic acid units with high oxygen barrier properties were synthesized and characterized. For the novel poly(alkylene sulfanediyldifuranoate)s, a 11.2–1.9× higher barrier improvement factor compared to amorphous poly(ethylene terephthalate) was observed which places the novel polyesters in the top class among previously reported 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) and 2,2′-bifuran-based polyesters. Titanium-catalyzed polycondensation reactions between the novel synthesized monomer, dimethyl 5,5′-sulfanediyldi(furan-2-carboxylate), and four different diols, ethylene glycol, 1,3-propanediol, 1,4-butanediol, and 1,5-pentanediol, afforded difuran polyesters with high intrinsic viscosities (0.76–0.90 dL/g). These polyesters had good thermal stability, decomposing at 342–363 and 328–570 °C under nitrogen and air, respectively, which allowed processing them into free-standing films via melt-pressing. In tensile testing of the film specimens, tensile moduli in the range of 0.4–2.6 GPa were recorded, with higher values observed for the polyesters with shorter diol units. Interestingly, besides the low oxygen permeability, the renewable sulfide-bridged furan monomer also endowed the polyesters with slight UV shielding effect, with cutoff wavelengths of ca. 350 nm, in contrast to FDCA-based polyesters, which lack significant UV light absorption at over 300 nm.

Synthesis of amides and esters containing furan rings under microwave-assisted conditions

In this work, we present a novel method for the synthesis of ester and amide derivatives containing furan rings (furfural derivatives) under mild synthetic conditions supported by microwave radiation. N-(Furan-2-ylmethyl)furan-2-carboxamide and furan-2-ylmethyl furan-2-carboxylate were produced using 2-furoic acid, furfurylamine, and furfuryl alcohol. The reactions were carried out in a microwave reactor in the presence of effective coupling reagents: DMT/NMM/TsO− or EDC. The reaction time, the solvent, and the amounts of the substrates were optimized. After crystallization or flash chromatography, the final compounds were isolated with good or very good yields. Our method allows for the synthesis of N-blocked amides using N-blocked amino acids (Boc, Cbz, Fmoc) and amine. As well as compounds with a monoamide and ester moiety, products with diamides and diester bonds (N,N-bis(furan-2-ylmethyl)furan-2,5-dicarboxamide, bis(furan-2-ylmethyl) furan-2,5-dicarboxylate, and furan-3,4-diylbis(methylene) bis(furan-2-carboxylate)) were synthesized with moderate yields in the presence of DMT/NMM/TsO– or EDC, using 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid and 3,4-bis(hydroxymethyl)furan as substrates.

Utilizing Furfural-Based Bifuran Diester as Monomer and Comonomer for High-Performance Bioplastics: Properties of Poly(butylene furanoate), Poly(butylene bifuranoate), and Their Copolyesters

Two homopolyesters and a series of novel random copolyesters were synthesized from two bio-based diacid esters, dimethyl 2,5-furandicarboxylate, a well-known renewable monomer, and dimethyl 2,2'-bifuran-5,5'-dicarboxylate, a more uncommon diacid based on biochemical furfural. Compared to homopolyesters poly(butylene furanoate) (PBF) and poly(butylene bifuranoate) (PBBf), their random copolyesters differed dramatically in that their melting temperatures were either lowered significantly or they showed no crystallinity at all. However, the thermal stabilities of the homopolyesters and the copolyesters were comparable. Based on tensile tests from amorphous film specimens, it was concluded that the elastic moduli, tensile strengths, and elongation at break values for all copolyesters were similar as well, irrespective of the furan:bifuran molar ratio. Tensile moduli of approximately 2 GPa and tensile strengths up to 66 MPa were observed for amorphous film specimens prepared from the copolyesters. However, copolymerizing bifuran units into PBF allowed the glass transition temperature to be increased by increasing the amount of bifuran units. Besides enhancing the glass transition temperatures, the bifuran units also conferred the copolyesters with significant UV absorbance. This combined with the highly amorphous nature of the copolyesters allowed them to be melt-pressed into highly transparent films with very low ultraviolet light transmission. It was also found that furan-bifuran copolyesters could be as effective, or better, oxygen barrier materials as neat PBF or PBBf, which themselves were found superior to common barrier polyesters such as PET.

Biobased Poly(Schiff-Base) Composed of Bifurfural

In this study, bifurfural, an inedible biobased chemical and a second-generation biomass, was polymerized with several diamines using an environmentally benign process, and the chemical structures of the resulting poly(Schiff base)s were analyzed. Because furan rings, which are only produced from biomass and not from fossil resources, endow polymers with unique properties that include high rigidity and expanded π-conjugation, bifurfural, which contains two furan rings, is of significant interest as a biobased building block. ¹H NMR, IR, and matrix assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectra of the poly(Schiff base)s reveal that they are composed of mixtures of linear and cyclic structures. The UV-vis spectroscopy and molecular orbital theory confirm the extended π-conjugation in the bifurfural/p-phenylenediamine poly(Schiff base) system. Poly(Schiff base)s composed of bifurfural and 1,3-propanediamine, 1,4-butandiamine, 1,5-pentanediamine, and 1,6-hexanediamine were molded at 120 °C into films that exhibited good strengths and were tough to bend. These results indicate that bifurfural-based poly(Schiff base)s are promising biobased materials.