Towards fully bio-based sun-protection coatings for wood

IIn the Bio-Inspired Materials group led by Pr Laurent BILLON

@ PREM UMR 5254

https://iprem.univ-pau.fr/fr/index.html

The reduction in the consumption of fossil fuels is one of the greatest social and economic challenges of the modern era. In order to reduce our dependence to fossil fuel and for long-term sustainability, bio-sourced alternatives have to be found to synthesize polymers.

One of the main resources for renewable materials is fruits and wood waste. In this sense, terpenes, which are extracted from coniferous trees and citric fruits, are a category of biomass that can be exploited. Terpenes contain one or more unsaturated carbons and are commonly utilized in fragrance and flavors formulations (e.g. limonene, camphor). Although, attempts to form polymers by direct polymerization of terpenes have been reported,[1] the use of terpenes as monomers implies the incorporation of suitable functional groups to (co)polymerize them by free radical polymerization obtaining high yields.[2]^,[3],[4]

Recently, the group of Prof. Billon has reported the copolymerization of a wide variety of terpenoid-based (meth)acrylate monomers using readily environmentally friendly scalable processes in dispersed media.^2-4 These latexes can be used for wood protection but need to be formulated with bio-based UV blockers and thickeners. A recent study in the group demonstrated the efficiency of the addition of lignin as UV blocking agent and the efficiency of terpenoid-based amphiphilic copolymers as thickeners.

In this framework, the general objective of the present project is to synthesize functional lignin and terpenoid-based (meth)acrylate monomers for polymerization in dispersed media, i.e. latex, and to copolymerize them for thickeners synthesis. The final aim will be to formulated all these building blocks to fully achieve bio-based sun-protection coatings for wood. 

Techniques: Organic chemistry, Polymerization in dispersed media and solution, NMR, DSC, DLS, SEM, UV-Visible spectroscopy

Period: from mid-January to mid-July

Supervisors: Prof. Laurent BILLON (IPREM) & Gilles LABAT (FCBA)

Master 2 or Engineer in Polymer science