Effect of Isomerization and Copolymerization of Itaconic Anhydride During the Synthesis of Renewable Monomers Using Vegetable Oils

Vegetable oils are alternatives to producing renewable monomers since they are biomass. It is possible to react them with anhydrides by heating to provide monomers with high reactivity. However, after the reaction of grape seed oil with itaconic anhydride, it was observed the occurrence of parallel reactions that had not been observed when the same oil was reacted with maleic anhydride. Some articles in the literature have reported that temperature and bases can isomerize itaconic anhydride into citraconic anhydride, which is more stable at room temperature. However, they have not focused on completely understanding how this phenomenon occurred nor studied it in processes that involve microwave irradiation. Therefore, this paper presents a complete characterization and investigation about the thermal behavior of itaconic anhydride and how it can affect the monomer synthesis performed under heating.