Aleksandra Jeżo^*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.12, No.6, pp. 1029-1042, 2024, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2024.051330 - 02 August 2024

Abstract Bark extracts are sustainable sources of biopolymers and hold great promise for replacing fossil fuel-based polymers, for example, in wood-based composites. In addition to primary and secondary metabolites, tree bark also contains suberin, which plays a major role in protecting the tree from environmental conditions. Suberin is a natural aliphatic-aromatic cross-linked polyester present in the cell walls of both normal and damaged external tissues, the main component of which are long-chain aliphatic acids. Its main role as a plant ingredient is to protect against microbiological factors and water loss. One of the most important suberin More >

Arne Rüdiger^1,2, Peter Hendil-Forssell³, Cecilia Hedfors³, Mats Martinelle³, Stacy Trey^4,5,*, Mats Johansson^1,4

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.1, No.2, pp. 124-140, 2013, DOI:10.7569/JRM.2012.634109

Abstract The present study describes the use of an epoxy functional fatty acid, 9,10-epoxy-18-hydroxyoctadecanoic acid (EFA), extracted from birch (Betula pendula) outer bark to produce thermosets. The purifi ed epoxy fatty acid was polymerized by enzyme-catalyzed polycondensation utilizing Candida antarctica lipase B (CalB) to form oligomers with targeted degrees of polymerization (DP) of 3, 6, and 9 and obtained DPs of 2.3, 5.9 and 7.3, respectively. It was determined that it is possible to fi rst enzymatically polymerize and aliphatically endcap the epoxy functional fatty acid resulting in controlled oligomer lengths while also maintaining the epoxy functionality… More >