PEF

http://newsroom.wiley.com/press-release/angewandte-chemie-international-edition/cellulose-3d-objects-3d-printing-biobased-poly

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201708528/epdf?r3_referer=wol&tracking_action=preview_click&show_checkout=1&purchase_referrer=newsroom.wiley.com&purchase_site_license=LICENSE_DENIED_NO_CUSTOMER

Here,wereportpoly(ethylene-2,5-furandicarboxylate) (PEF), acompletelybiomass-derived green polymer,asasuitable material for 3Dprinting with many practical advantages.Afull sustainable development cycle starting fromcellulose was implemented (Figure 1A). Cellulose or carbo-hydrates were directly converted to 5-(hydroxymethyl)furfu-ral (HMF) using aprocedure developed recently.[7]Transformation of biomass to HMF is actively studiedworldwide,and the production of HMF at the plant scale isnow available.[8]Oxidation of HMF leads to 2,5-furandicar-boxylic acid (FDCA), which can be esterified with methanolto yield the corresponding methyl ester derivative (FDE).FDCA and FDE are important building units for the synthesisof avariety of polyesters.[8,9]Multistep melt polycondensationof FDE with ethylene glycol proceeds in vacuo using titanium(IV) isopropoxide as the catalyst (1.25 mol %). Thetargetpolyester was obtained after re-precipitation from methanolas awhite powder in excellent yield (97 %).