Fully bio-based poly(Isosorbide acrylates) for the development of innovative waterborne physIcal gels and latexes – IRRIGATE

Nowadays, one of the main challenges of the chemical industry is to propose innovative products and materials designed solely from renewable resources and via "green" processes. This is the context of the IRRIGATE project, which aims to design innovative, totally biobased materials based on new block architectures constructed from two isosorbide-based diastereomeric vinyl monomers that can be polymerised by radical polymerization in aqueous media. These two diastereoisomers, which are characterised by antagonistic water solubility properties, will be used to design new totally biobased amphiphilic multiblock copolymers, some of which will be thermostimulable, and capable of self-assembling to give rise to physical gels and/or latexes (via the PISA process: polymerisation induced self-assembly). These self-assembled materials will be studied both from a fundamental angle, in order to establish the composition/structure relationships of the self-assembled edifices/material properties (particularly rheological properties), and from an application angle through the development of a new range of cosmetic lotions and new anti-grease coatings for paper and board packaging.
To carry out this ambitious collaborative research program, a consortium composed of two academic partners (UMET, IPCM) and one industrial partner (Roquette), combining complementary skills in organic chemistry, macromolecular design, radical polymerization chemistry (particularly in RAFT-PISA), physical chemistry, and in the formulation of biosourced matrices for applications targeting the cosmetics and packaging fields, will be formed.