Castor oil-based multi-functional monomers and their application in polyamide design

The design of functional monomers and their functional polymer materials from renewable biomass is gaining more and more attention. This work describes a simple and efficient method to synthesis multi-functional monomers derived from castor oil (Ricinus communis L). Methyl undecylenate was used as starting materials to synthesize epoxy methyl undecylenate monomer via double-bonded epoxidation, and subsequent ammonia ring opening reaction were conducted subsequently to obtain long-chain multi-functional monomer. The prepared multi-functional monomer was applied to design functional polymers by melt polycondensation. For self-condensation, the hydroxyl and secondary amine group of the multi-functional monomer can react with the ester group to form cross-linked polyamide , which possess elastic recovery of up to 97 % after five cycles of stretching. When the multi-functional monomer was copolymerized with 1, 6-hexamethylenediamine, functional polyamide with tensile strength of 43 MPa and elongation at break of 265 % was obtained.