Green Polymerization Methods

INTRODUCTION

- The Scope and Importance of Green Polymerization Methods. Available Building Blocks from Renewable Sources

INTEGRATION OF RENEWABLE STARTING MATERIALS

- Plant Oils as Renewable Feedstocks for Polymer Science Furans as Natural Siblings of Sugars and Polysaccharides and Progenitors of a Large Family of Remarkable Polymers Lignin Based Materials Selective Conversion of Glycerol to Functional Monomers

SUSTAINABLE REACTION CONDITIONS

- Monoterpenes as Polymerization Solvents and Monomers in Polymer Chemistry Controlled and Living Polymerizations in Water Towards Sustainable Solution Polymerization: Biodiesel as a Polymerization Solvent

CATALYTIC PROCESSES

- Catalytic Polymerizations with Renewable Epoxides and Carbon Dioxide Degradable and Biodegradable Polymers by Controlled Radical Polymerization: From Synthesis to Applications

BIOMIMETIC METHODS AND BIOCATALYSIS

- High-Performance Polymers from Phenolic Biomonomers Green Carbocationic Polymerization and Polymer Functionalization for Biotechnology

Robert T. Mathers graduated from North Carolina State University with a B.S. in chemistry. After working under the direction of Professor Roderic P. Quirk at The University of Akron, he obtained a PhD in Polymer Science in 2002. After two years of postdoctoral research at Cornell University with Professor Geoffrey W. Coates in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, he joined Pennsylvania State University. Currently, he is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at the New Kensington campus. His research interests focus on green polymerization methods that integrate renewable resources, such as monoterpenes, with catalysis. Robert has also served as coeditor for the Handbook of Transition Metal Polymerization Catalysts published by Wiley.
 
Michael A. R. Meier (born 1975) studied chemistry at the University of Regensburg and obtained his doctorate in 2006 from the Eindhoven University of Technology, for which he was awarded with the Golden Thesis Award of the Dutch Polymer Institute. In 2006 he was appointed principal investigator of the junior research group Renewable Raw Materials at the University of Applied Sciences in Emden, Germany. In June 2009 he became Juniorprofessor for Sustainable Organic Synthesis at the University of Potsdam, Germany. Since October 2010 he is full professor at the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology in Karlsruhe, Germany. In 2010 he was awarded with the European Young Lipid Scientist Award of European Federation for the Science and Technology of Lipids. His current research focuses on a sustainable use of plant oils and other renewable resources for the synthesis of novel monomers, fine chemicals, and polymers. He is an author of more than 70 journal publications and co-inventor on three patents.