Synthesis of cardanol oil building blocks for polymer synthesis

This review proposes a platform approach for the synthesis of various building blocks from cardanol in one- or two-steps syntheses. Cardanol, which is a natural phenol, is issued from cashew nutshell liquid, a non-edible renewable resource, co-produced from the cashew industry in large commercial volumes. Cardanol is non-toxic and particularly suitable for the addition of aromatic renewable resources in polymers and materials. Various routes were used for the synthesis of di- and poly-functional building blocks used thereafter in polymer syntheses. Phenolation was used to dimerize/oligomerize cardanol in order to increase its functionality. Thio-ene was used to synthesize new reactive amines. Epoxidation and (meth)acrylation were also used to insert oxirane or (meth)acrylate groups in order to synthesize polymers and materials.