A green and sustainable strategy for recyclable ultraviolet (UV)-curable resin from tartaric acid via three dimensional (3D) printing to reduce plastic pollution

Thermosetting plastics account for approximately 18% of global plastic production, with an annual global production of 65 million tons. The vast majority of thermosetting plastic waste are buried, burned, or discharged into the ocean, causing serious pollution to the natural environment. How to develop a green, energy-saving, and high value-added recycling method is a major challenge in plastic recycling. Ultraviolet (UV)-curable resins derived from renewable resources for constructing high strength vitrimeric materials and 3D printed subjects are important for sustainability and responsive recycling. Herein, a resin (tartaric acid-glycidyl methacrylate, TAGM) containing two methacrylate groups, two ss-hydroxyl ester groups and a vicinal diol group was prepared from biomass tartaric acid via a green and sustainable strategy including one-step & solvent -free procedure. After facile UV-curing of TAGM, thermally reprocessable polymeric networks were obtained and tested to have high glass transition temperature (Tg), mechanical strength, Young's modulus and toughness of 127.6 degrees C, 104.4 MPa, 1244.2 MPa and 6.3 MJ/m3, respectively. The polar vicinal diol group from tartaric acid (TA) plays a critical role for the advantageous thermomechanical performances, as learned in a comparative study with similarly structured monomers from succinic acid (SA) and L-malic acid (MA). Additionally, the TAGM with 30% diluent of hydroxyethyl methacrylate was utilized for three dimensional (3D) printing, and exhibited smaller penetration depth and high resolution. This work demonstrates a feasible approach to fabricate biobased resin for high strength vitrimeric materials and customized manufacturing via 3D printing.The resulted mechanically robust and vitrimeric subjects with significant comprehensive advantages and will provide important inspiration for plastic recycling and reducing plastic pollution.