Acrylated soybean oil: a key intermediate for more sustainable elastomeric materials from silicones

The myriad benefits of silicone polymers can be made more sustainable by replacing much of the elastomer body with acrylated soybean oil. The crosslinked copolymers are simply made without catalysts using an aza-Michael reaction. Silicone elastomers are widely used because of their myriad useful properties. However, their synthesis requires a high energy input. We report that the amount of silicone, per application, can be significantly reduced …