Abstract

This contribution describes the synthesis and characterization of novel polymeric materials based on olive oil. Resins were successfully produced with number average molecular weight Mn values up to 8.8 kDa without the addition of a catalyst (only Bu4NI, 0.5 mol%) or significant amounts of solvents through the reaction between phthalic (PA) or maleic (MA) anhydride and epoxidized olive oil. These novel materials were characterized by SEM, GPC, TGA, IR, MALDI-TOF-MS, NMR, and uniaxial mechanical tests. Additionally, computational studies based on electronic calculations at the DFT level allow to explain why small amounts of toluene are effective in initiating the reaction, whereas those based on molecular dynamics explain the main conformational changes on the resulting co-polymers. Moreover, these materials were mixed with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and were used as an additive or plasticizer to fabricate PVA-based filaments for 3D printing. These new resins, which can also be produced from used cooking vegetable oil, have the potential to be more widely applied in everyday life.