Advances in the development of biobased epoxy resins: insight into more sustainable materials and future applications

Abstract

The urgent need to replace fossil resource-based products is considerably increasing in the past few years, resulting in the search for more sustainable materials, with the aim of reducing the wastes from polymer pollution, solving economic and environmental issues. This is even more relevant in industrial fields, where toxic compounds are the basis of their polymeric formulations. Herein is reported the most relevant advances of epoxy resins (ERs) in the past decade, with great emphasis on the replacement of bisphenol A (BPA), leading to the production of renewable-based ERs with good properties. The synthesis of ERs based on renewable sources, such as vegetable oils, phenolic compounds, sugars and the outcome in the material’s structure is explored within this review. Emphasis is also given to the use of new biobased curing agents and biofillers to enhance the biocharacter of the ERs.