Green polymer chemistry: new methods of polymer synthesis using renewable starting materials

The present article reviews the recent results reported mainly from our group on “green polymer chemistry”. Characteristic important aspects of green polymer chemistry include herein, typically (1) using renewable resources as starting materials for polymer production, and (2) employing green method for the polymer synthesis. As renewable starting materials, the following materials were employed; lactic acid, itaconic anhydride, renewable plant oils, and cardanol. Polymer production using these materials contributes to mitigate the carbon dioxide emission because of their “carbon neutral” nature. As green method, lipase enzyme was mainly used for polymerization catalyst, since lipase is a natural benign catalyst, showing a specific catalysis as well as recyclable character. Polymer synthesis from these materials and the catalyst provided various value-added functional polymers, demonstrating good examples of green polymer chemistry.