Renewable Furan-Based Epoxy Resins Derived from 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural and Furfural

The rapid depletion of oil reserves has intensified interest in research on the preparation of biobased polymers derived from renewable resources. Among biomass-based platform chemicals, furan-based compounds are a suitable replacement for petro-sourced chemicals because of their aromatic characteristics and sustainability. In this work, we report a mild and scalable synthesis of two types of furan-based diepoxide monomers from readily available 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and furfural. Various diamines were employed as the curing agents, and a series of biobased epoxy/amine systems was subsequently prepared. Evaluation of thermal and mechanical performance of the cured epoxy resins demonstrated that synthetic furan-based epoxy resins have the potential to complement current phenyl-based polymer materials.