Microwave-Assisted Catalytic Synthesis of Bio-Based Copolymers from Waste Cooking Oil

Solvent-free copolymerization of epoxides derived from fatty esters of waste cooking oil with phthalic anhydride using (salen)Cr(III)Cl as catalyst and n-Bu(4)NCl/DMAP (tetrabutylammonium chloride/4-(dimethylamino)pyridine) as co-catalysts was carried out for the first time under microwave irradiation, where reaction time was reduced from a number of hours to minutes. The polyesters were obtained with molecular weight (Mw = 3100–6750 g/mol) and dispersity values (D = 1.18–1.92) when (salen)Cr(III)Cl/n-Bu(4)NCl was used as catalysts. Moreover, in the case of DMAP as a co-catalyst, polyesters with improved molecular weight (Mw = 5500–6950 g/mol) and narrow dispersity values (D = 1.07–1.28) were obtained even at reduced concentrations of (salen)Cr(III)Cl and DMAP. The obtained products were characterized and evaluated by attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), proton nuclear magnetic resonance ((1)H-NMR) spectroscopy, gel permeation chromatography (GPC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) Techniques.