Renewable Polymers Synthesis, Processing, and Technology

It has been a long-term desire to replace polymers from fossil fuels with the more environmentally friendly polymers generated from renewable resources. Although a lot of effort has been devoted to the development of such polymers, in most cases the polymers from renewable resources were costly and did not match the properties of the fossil fuel-based polymers.   However, with the recent advancements in synthesis technologies and the finding of new functional monomers, research in this field has shown strong potential in generating better property polymers from renewable resources. A text describing these advances in synthesis, processing, and technology of such polymers not only provides the state-of-the-art information to researchers, but also acts to further progress research in this direction. The contents are based on a wide range of functional monomers and the contributions are included from eminent researchers. Specifically the book:     ·        Demonstrates the design, synthesis, properties and applications of plant oil based polymers. ·        Presents an elaborate review of acid mediated polymerization techniques for the generation of green polymers. ·        Deatils the production of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) from olive oil based wastewater. ·        Describes the use of atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) techniques ·        Review the renewable polymers derived from transgenic crop plants. ·        Provides an overview of a range of biomass-based polymers Concludes with the recent efforts and approaches exploiting the natural materials in developing drug delivery systems.

Vikas Mittal is an Assistant Professor at the Chemical Engineering Department of The Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi. He obtained his PhD in 2006 in Polymer and Materials Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. He then worked as a materials scientist in Active and Intelligent Coatings section of SunChemical in London, UK and as a polymer engineer at BASF Polymer Research in Ludwigshafen, Germany. His research interests include polymer nanocomposites, novel filler surface modifications, thermal stability enhancements, and polymer latexes with functionalized surfaces.