Ian David Victor Ingram

Environmental forensics for plastic pollution: chemical fingerprinting identifies unique markers to differentiate plastic polymers, items, manufacturing locations, and sources.

The increasing use of bio-based and/or biodegradable plastics reflects a global push towards more sustainable materials. In the context of food packaging, where plastic waste and contamination risks are acute, these materials offer promising alternatives. However, the transition is complex, requiring coordinated regulatory interventions and lifecycle assessments (LCA) to avoid unintended environmental and health consequences. This paper outlines the pressing need for policies that guide the development and deployment of bio-based plastics in food-related applications. It provides a policy-oriented synthesis focused on Europe and discusses recent concerns such as toxicity, end-of-life impacts, and food safety. The study draws from the literature review and regulatory analysis to suggest policy mechanisms that can accelerate safe, circular solutions in food packaging. Methodologically, this communication uses qualitative synthesis of scientific and regulatory data to assess gaps and align innovations with sustainability targets.

Novel bio‐based plasticisers for polyvinyl chloride (PVC) are a significant and growing area of interest. These compounds aim to replace toxic and petrochemical additives in commonly used plastic products. Plasticisers can comprise as much as 50% of the total mass of the PVC product. Epoxidised soybean oil (ESBO) is a commercially available bio‐based plasticizer that is typically used at lower levels than traditional phthalates in PVC compounds because it does not show equivalent performance to existing phthalate plasticisers. Four derivatives of ESBO have been synthesized through reaction at the epoxide rings. These compounds have been evaluated in PVC formulations and compared to current petrochemical plasticisers, as well as ESBO. The product of methoxy polyethylene glycol and ESBO shows good plasticising ability, giving a PVC compound with higher tensile strength and elongation than dioctyl phthalate (DOP) and a lower glass transition temperature (Tg) than with the use of ESBO.

The design and preparation of polymers by using biobased chemicals is regarded as an important strategy towards a sustainable polymer chemistry. Herein, two aromatic diols, 4-(hydroxymethyl)-2-methoxyphenol and 2-(4-(hydroxymethyl)-2-methoxyphenoxy)ethanol, have been prepared in good yields through the direct reduction of vanillin and hydroxyethylated vanillin (4-(2-hydroxyethoxy)-3-methoxybenzaldehyde) using NaBH₄, respectively. The diols were submitted to traditional polycondensation and polyaddition with acyl chlorides and diisocyanatos, and serials of new polyesters and polyurethanes were prepared in high yields with moderate molecular weight ranging from 17,000 to 40,000 g mol⁻¹. Their structures were characterized by ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR and FTIR, and their thermal properties were studied by TGA and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), indicating that the as-prepared polyesters and polyurethanes have T_g in the range of 16.2 to 81.2 °C and 11.6 to 80.4 °C, respectively.

The reduction of carbon dioxide has gained much attention due to increasing environmental concerns about global warming associated with carbon emissions from industrial effluents and public transport etc. In this regard, considerable attention has been devoted to the chemical conversion of carbon dioxide, and its incorporation into synthetic organic molecules under mild and “green” conditions. In recent years, significant effort has been dedicated to studying the fixation of carbon dioxide with aziridines to afford oxazolidinones, which is an environmental friendly and atom economical process. In this review, we discuss the efficiency of different catalytic systems, by comparing and analyzing each reaction parameter such as pressure, temperature, substrate scope and product selectivity.

Well‐controlled and extremely rapid ring‐opening metathesis polymerization of unusual oxanorbornene lactam esters by Grubbs third‐generation catalyst is used to prepare a range of bio‐based homo‐ and copolymers. Bio‐derived oxanorbornene lactam monomers were prepared at room temperature from maleic anhydride and secondary furfuryl amines by using a 100 % atom economical, tandem Diels–Alder lactamization reaction, followed by esterification. Several of the resulting homo‐ and copolymers show good control over polymer molecular weight and have narrow molecular weight distributions.

Invited for the cover of this issue is the group of Michael North and co‐workers at the University of York. The image depicts the use of a mixture of two green solvents to swell a solid‐phase synthesis resin bead that does not swell in either pure solvent. Read the full text of the article at 10.1002/chem.201900228.

The swelling of resins (Merrifield and HypoGel 200) in mixtures of two solvents was generally found not to vary linearly with the relative amount of each solvent in the mixture. Hansen solubility parameter (HSP) space could be used to define high, medium and low swelling regions for each resin. The variation of resin swelling with binary solvent composition could then be explained based on the HSP parameters of the two solvents and the way in which the line connecting the points corresponding to the two pure solvents bisected the swelling region for the resin. The applicability of the methodology was demonstrated by showing that an appropriate mixture of two green solvents was more effective for solid‐phase peptide synthesis on Merrifield resin than use of either individual solvent and could completely replace the use of traditional polar aprotic and chlorinated solvents for this application. It was also shown that the high resin swelling area of Merrifield resin can be used to predict mixtures of green solvents that will dissolve linear, unfunctionalised polystyrene.

: Novel unsaturated and saturated monomers with a hydroxyl group and a carboxylic group via aldol condensation reaction of lignin‐derived aromatic aldehydes with levulinic acid were prepared through organocatalysis and hydrogenation, respectively. The catalytic process was optimized and the structure of the monomers were full characterized. The as‐prepared monomers were ready for the subsequent condensation polymerization to achieve a serial of novel full biobased poly(ester ketone)s. The chemical‐physical properties of the poly(ester ketone)s were evaluated. This provides a green upgrading strategy to prepare sustainable synthetic polymers from building blocks available on a large scale using a catalytic biorefinery approach.