Who says nylon doesn't grow on trees?

[AJArduengo]

“Examples of Xylochemistry: Colorants and Polymer” Kühlborn, J.; Danner, A.-K.; Frey, H.; Iyer, R.; Arduengo III, A. J.; Opatz, T. Green Chem., 2017, 19, 3780–3786. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/C7GC01244F

"Fully biological production of adipic acid analogs from branched catechols" Kruyer, N.S.; Wauldron, N.; Bommarius, A.S.; Peralta-Yahya, P. Sci. Rep. 2020, 10, 13367-13374. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-70158-z

[RoscoBanner]

Pretty cool. Can other plastics be made this way (from wood)?

[AJArduengo]

Thanks for the comment and question. The short answer is, yes. Actually, plastics from wood and other cellulose sources (cotton, and any biomass made of glucose units) have been around a very log time and played important roles in everything from food distribution to wearing apparel. The best known plastics in this category are cellophane (a plastic wrap) and rayon (a synthetic fiber). Both of these latter synthetic materials don't deviate too widely from the basic structure of cellulose which is a natural polymer made up of many glucose units and as such are sometimes referred to as "semi-synthetic materials." Most of the plastics with which you might be familiar today (for example nylon, polyesters, and polyolefins) are fully synthetic with their origins in petrochemistry, in other words the chemistry of crude oil & tar, natural gas, and sometimes coal - generally petroleum. With most of today's "modern" plastic being made out of petroleum, it takes new chemistry and technology to derive these same modern materials from a more environmentally friendly and sustainable source such as woody-biomass. That's what ReWOOD and xylochemistry are all about. The nylon examples above use mostly lignin from lignocellulose as the starting point. However, many variants on these examples exists and some modern polymers are even easier to make from woody-biomass than the nylon examples described above.