POLYMAT and Department of Polymers and Advanced Materials: Physics, Chemistry and Technology, Faculty of Chemistry, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Paseo Manuel de Lardizabal 3, 20018, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain.
ORIBAY Group Automotive S.L. R&D Department, Portuetxe bidea 18, 20018, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain.
Chem Commun (Camb). 2021 Nov 19;57(92):12254-12265. doi: 10.1039/d1cc05009e.
The transition towards safer and more sustainable production of polymers has led to a growing body of academic research into non-isocyanate polyurethanes (NIPUs) as potential replacements for conventional, isocyanate-based polyurethane materials. This perspective article focuses on the opportunities and current limitations of NIPUs produced by the reaction between biobased cyclic carbonates with amines, which offers an interesting pathway to renewable NIPUs. While it was initially thought that due to the similarities in the chemical structure, NIPUs could be used to directly replace conventional polyurethanes (PU), this has proven to be more challenging to achieve in practice. As a result, and in spite of the vast amount of academic research into this topic, the market size of NIPUs remains negligible. In this perspective, we will emphasize the main limitations of NIPUs in comparison to conventional PUs and the most significant advances made by others and us to overcome these limitations. Finally, we provide our personal view of where research should be directed to promote the transition from the academic to the industrial sector.
向更安全、更可持续的聚合物生产方式的转变，促使学术界对非异氰酸酯聚氨酯（NIPU）进行了大量研究，将其作为传统异氰酸酯基聚氨酯材料的潜在替代品。本文着眼于用生物基环状碳酸酯与胺反应生成 NIPU 的机会和当前局限性，这为可再生 NIPU 提供了一条有趣的途径。虽然最初认为由于化学结构相似，NIPU 可以直接替代传统的聚氨酯（PU），但实际上这在实践中更具挑战性。因此，尽管针对这一主题进行了大量的学术研究，但 NIPU 的市场规模仍然微不足道。在本文中，我们将重点介绍 NIPU 与传统 PU 相比的主要局限性，以及其他人及我们为克服这些局限性而取得的重大进展。最后，我们提出了个人观点，认为研究应该针对哪些方面，以促进从学术领域向工业领域的转变。
