Monomers from renewable resources:

Due to the ongoing shortage of fossil resources it is one of today’s biggest challenges of chemistry to develop procedures towards renewable commodity chemicals. In this context, fatty acids have been shown to be a very promising starting material for renewable, bio-based polymers. However, these reactions have been performed almost exclusively for unsaturated fatty acids since the double bond is used for modifications. Modifications of saturated fatty acids towards renewable monomers has been reported only once using a biochemical approach.

On the other hand, by C-H functionalization it should be possible to modify also saturated fatty acids towards sustainable monomers for the synthesis of bio-based polymers. One possibility is the usage of the α-acidity of esters. After deprotonation such esters can undergo a (Cross)-Claisen condensation or be arylated with various aromatics. Another possible way to activate the chain is by terminal dehydrogenation or borylation. Although these reactions have been presented only for alkanes, they seem very promising for fatty acid esters.