NIPU · SYNTHESIS, CHARACTERIZATION, STRUCTURE AND PROPERTIES OF NOVEL NONISOCYANATE POLYURETHANES

SYNTHESIS, CHARACTERIZATION, STRUCTURE AND PROPERTIES OF NOVEL NONISOCYANATE POLYURETHANES

With our planet´s resources progressively becoming scarcer, implementing sustainability and green chemistry in the field of polymers as a motor to achieve the transition towards a resource-efficient and competitive economy is today essential to ensure biodiversity, social well-being, and environment protection. In particular, NIPU European Joint Doctorate (NIPU-EJD) aimed to develop more sustainable and less hazardous polyurethanes currently produced with carcinogenic, mutagenic, and reprotoxic isocyanates and instead exploit bio- and CO2-sourced monomers as greener and high-performance alternatives to produce non-isocyanates polyurethanes (NIPUs). NIPUs have promising performance for emerging and highly demanded applications such as rigid and flexible foams, coatings, elastomers, adhesives, recycling, and 3D printing. In order to achieve our research goal, NIPU-EJD has implemented a highly interdisciplinary, international, intersectoral doctoral training program focused on adding scientific/technical competencies as well as transferable skills to 12 Early Stage Rresearchers (ESRs) in the emerging and important area of applied polymer chemistry in the context of sustainability. For the first time, the NIPU-EJD program integrated world-class and well-rounded expertise in the development of NIPUs, working closely with industrial partners, who played an active role in the identification, validation and future adoption of the new sustainable and eco-friendly production and applications of NIPUs. As a conclusion, - our MSCA fellows are nowadays ready to face a high level and highly competitive research environment, via the skills that they have acquired throughout their doctorate and their secondments. The MSCA label is clearly an asset and the joint doctorates also. - the safe and sustainable development of NIPU is still in its infancy from an industrial perspective though significant progresses have been made in the understanding and resolution of scientific and technical challenges related to NIPU, as could be highlighted by the number of scientific publications and patents. Fundamental research is however still necessary and target areas have been identified thanks to the work carried out by the consortium. - In term of exploitation, the MSCA Doctoral Network Horizon Europe project has successfully delivered innovative solutions in the field of sustainable, non-isocyanate polyurethanes and a clear strategy has been defined: through strategic intellectual property protection, including three patents, and targeted exploitation mechanisms, these results offer significant potential for environmental and industrial impact. - Continued collaboration with stakeholders will be essential to maximize their adoption and to drive further advancements in sustainable material technologies.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union