About this Research Topic

Background

To solve the increasingly severe environmental problems, the conversion of renewable biomass resources into sustainable chemicals and polymers has been extensively studied by the researchers all over the world. Green and highly efficient processes are necessary to reduce the cost of biomass-derived products for practical applications. Bio-based chemical platforms including furan derivatives, organic acids, alcohols, phenols have been developed based on various methods such as catalytic conversion, electrochemical synthesis, hydrolytic conversion etc. The chemical platforms can be used as fuels or further developed for the production of a variety of important chemicals, such as polymerization monomers. Many sustainable polymers were synthesized from bio-based monomers, for example, poly-condensation of diols, diacids and diamines to get biobased polyesters and polyamides and ring-opening polymerization of lactones derivatives to bio-based polycarbonates. Recently, many new bio-based polymers have been also reported as sustainable materials, such as polysilylether etc.

Biomass conversion for high-value products such as bio-based platform chemicals and polymers has been well developed in recent years. However, in terms of conversion selectivity and efficiency, there are still problems that remain in the development of novel green catalysts and novel polymerization methods of the bio-based monomers. The purpose of this Research Topic is therefore to highlight recent advances in the development and optimization of chemo-catalytic systems for the selective conversion of biomass into sustainable chemicals and polymers. This Research Topic highlights the Green Chemistry approaches towards biomass-based platform chemicals for sustainable polymer production. We invite submissions in view of Biomass Conversion to Sustainable Chemicals and Polymers, especially those with designing innovation for the synthesis of biomass-based platform chemicals and biomass-based polymer materials and their applications.

We welcome Original Research, Review, Mini Review and Perspective articles on themes including, but not limited to:
• Green chemical processes in value-added bio-based monomers (e.g. Bio-, photo, electrocatalysis)
• Catalytic routes for the biomass waste conversion to derived chemical (e.g. furan derivatives, organic acids, alcohols, phenols, ethers)
• Catalytic routes and mechanism for synthesis of biobased polymers and their applications (e.g. biobased polyesters)
• Biomass pre-treatment and product separation process
• Waste valorization

Keywords: Biomass, Green chemistry, Furan derivatives, Polymers, Biomass derived fuels, Catalytic mechanism

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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