Well-defined soy-based poly(2-oxazoline)s: More than just Renewable

The use of renewable feedstock is becoming a more and more important issue in chemistry due to the increasing oil-prices and the concerns about future oil-supplies. In polymer chemistry, the use of renewable resources has attracted significant attention in the last couple of years as well.
In this contribution, we discuss the cationic ring-opening polymerization of a 2 oxazoline monomer with soybean fatty acid side chains (SoyOx) under microwave irradiation.1 Kinetic experiments were performed to investigate the livingness of the polymerization in both acetonitrile and in the absence of solvent. In addition, both block and statistical copolymers were prepared using the SoyOx monomer.2 The synthesized (co)polymers were crosslinked under UV-irradiation resulting in insoluble polymeric materials and core-crosslinked micelles.1,3

References
1. R. Hoogenboom, U. S. Schubert, Green Chem. 2006, 8, 895-899.
2. R. Hoogenboom, M. A. M. Leenen, H. Huang, C.-A. Fustin, J.-F. Gohy, U. S. Schubert, Colloid Polym. Sci. 2006, 284, 1313-1318.
3. H. Huang, R. Hoogenboom, M. A. M. Leenen, P. Guillet, A. M. Jonas, U. S. Schubert, J.-F. Gohy, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006, 128, 3784-3788.