Polysulfides From Renewable Monomers By Catalytic Inverse Vulcanization

Reduction of fossil fuel consumption and shift towards renewable feedstock are among the goals of a sustainable development. In particular, the reuse of industrial wastes as starting materials can help to minimize the impact of productive activity on environment. In the last few years, a strong interest in exploring the use of sulfur as a low cost starting material with the purpose to valorize the large volumes of elemental sulfur derived from oil industry are stored unused, causing the global "excess sulfur problem" has emerged. [1,2] Here, the catalytic inverse vulcanization of low cost monomers, including monomers coming from renewable sources or by-products and waste to obtain sustainable sulfur rich materials is reported. Epoxides such as limonene oxide (LO), epoxidated soybean oil (ESbO), and vinyl cyclohexene oxide (VCHO) and dipentene (DIP) and grape seed oil (GsO) have been explored as monomers.