Use of renewable resource vanillin for the preparation of benzoxazine resin and reactive monomeric surfactant containing oxazine ring

A renewable natural resource, vanillin, is used to synthesize polybenzoxazine with the expected desirable benzoxazine properties as well as a high char yield of 55.3%. The synthesized monomer provides an unused aldehyde group from vanillin. The aldehyde can be further reacted with other materials to enhance properties. As a model, the unused aldehyde is reacted with amine terminated poly(ethylene oxide) to form a surfactant which retains 1,3-benzoxazineʹs reactivity. The chemical structure of the synthesized monomers, surfactant and polymers are characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H NMR). Thermal properties are also characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Miniemulsions with stability up to 2 weeks are created with the newly synthesized surfactant and polystyrene. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) indicates 627 nm as the average diameter of the emulsion droplets.