Lewis acid-catalyzed polymerization of biological oils and resulting polymeric materials

A method for making a biological oil plastic by Lewis-acid catalyzed polymerization, comprising:

• obtaining a biological oil containing an unsaturated fatty acid ester;
• mixing the biological oil with a ruthenium catalyst in a reduced oxygen atmosphere to produce a biological oil- ruthenium catalyst mixture;
• and
• subjecting the biological oil-ruthenium catalyst mixture to a temperature within a range of about 20° C. to about 250° C. for about 3 to about 192 hours to form a reaction mixture containing a metathesized product;
• mixing the metathesized product with a Lewis-acid catalyst to produce an oil-catalyst mixture;
• and
• subjecting the oil-catalyst mixture to a temperature within the range of about 10° C. to about 125° C. for about 22 to about 96 hours to form a polymerized biological oil.

A method of making a thermoset plastic, comprising:

• obtaining a biological oil selected from the group consisting of fish oil and soybean oil;
• mixing said biological oil with a comonomer selected from the group consisting of divinylbenzene, norbornadiene, dicyclopentadiene, styrene, alpha-methylstyrene, furfural, p-benzoquinone, p-mentha-1,8-diene, and furan to form a biological oil-comonomer mixture;
• mixing said biological oil-comonomer mixture with about 1 to 7% by weight of a BF3.OEt2 catalyst to produce an oil-catalyst mixture;
• and
• subjecting the oil-catalyst mixture to a temperature within the range of about 10° C. to about 125° C. for about 22 to about 96 hours to form a hard thermoset plastic.

A method of making a thermoset plastic, comprising:

• obtaining a biological oil selected from the group consisting of fish oil and soybean oil;
• conjugating said biological oil by use of a rhodium catalyst selected from the group consisting of RhCl(PPh3)3, [RhCl(C8H14)2]2, [RhCl(C2H4)2]2;
• mixing the conjugated biological oil with the Lewis-acid catalyst BF3.OEt2 to produce an oil-catalyst mixture;
• and
• subjecting the oil-catalyst mixture to a temperature within the range of about 10° C. to about 125° C. for about 22 to about 96 hours to form a hard thermoset plastic.

A method of making a thermoset plastic, comprising:

• obtaining a biological oil selected from the group consisting of fish oil and soybean oil;
• mixing the biological oil with a ruthenium catalyst in a reduced oxygen atmosphere to produce a biological oil-ruthenium catalyst mixture;
• subjecting the biological oil-ruthenium catalyst mixture to a temperature within a range of about 20° C. to about 250° C. for about 3 to about 192 hours to form a reaction mixture containing a metathesized product;
• mixing the metathesized product with the Lewis-acid catalyst BF3.OEt2 to produce a metathesized product-catalyst mixture;
• and
• subjecting the metathesized product-catalyst mixture to a temperature within the range of about 10° C. to about 125° C. for about 22 to about 96 hours to form a hard thermoset plastic.