Vegetable oils and their fatty acids (FAs) derivatives have become the most promising alternative solution to design performant bio-based polymers. The increasing success toward these renewable resources is explained by their wide availability, their low toxicity, as well as their reactive sites opening up various possibilities of functionalization. However, considering the poor reactivity of the internal unsaturation of FAs through radical process, most currently available synthesis of monomers reported in literature are limited to polycondensation. Consequently, there is an important challenge in providing monomers from FAs suitable for radical polymerization to provide bio-based vinyl polymers. For instance, poly(alkyl)methacrylate (PMAs) have known a significant widespread since the beginning of the 20th century in various applications and more especially as viscosity modifier additives for mineral oils. However, except some patents reporting the synthesis of acrylic acid from glycerol, the majority of common PMAs are originated from petroleum resources. Therefore, the objective of our work is to synthesize monomers from fatty acids bearing reactive function through radical process and evaluate their resulting methacrylate polymers as viscosity modifiers in various oils such as mineral or vegetable oils.
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