Castor oil as a platform for preparing bio-based chemicals and polymer materials

Recent years have seen rapid growth in utilizing vegetable oils to derive a wide variety of bio-based chemicals and polymer materials to replace petroleum-based chemicals and polymer materials for minimizing environmental impact. Castor oil is a renewable resource and an important platform chemical. The interest in preparation of bio-based chemicals and polymer materials using castor oil as raw material has been increasing. Castor-oil-based chemicals mainly include biodiesel fuels, lubricants, plasticizers and polyols, while castor-oil-based polymers mainly include polyurethane, polyesters, resin, elastomers and cross-linked polymers. With this in mind, the present review summarizes and analyzes castor-oil-based chemicals and polymers in a wide range of industries and provides a perspective on future utilization.