Project R-16825
Title
BIOKET – Biobased Ketone Platform for Circular Self-healing Poly-imine Networks (Research)
Abstract
Self-healing materials hold a revolutionary potential to improve the materials industry in terms of
product durability, and can thereby significantly contribute to waste prevention and reduced energy
consumption. However, the development of scalable self-healing polymeric networks for
commercialization is still limited by the scarcity of multi-ketone substrates that are sufficiently
sustainable yet also affordable. This proposal introduces a novel tailorable design for self-healing
poly-imine materials, for which a novel circular production process and waste-preventive end-of-life
solution are co-designed. Herein, multi-ketone substrates are first synthesized from renewable
levulinic acid and variable bio-based amine via a sophisticated catalytic oxidation method;
subsequently, poly-condensation with other amine compounds will yield the envisioned poly-imine
networks. These self-healing materials will be subjected to thorough analytical characterization and
application tests for adhesives, coatings, and 3D-printing. An environmentally friendly
depolymerization strategy will be explored to retrieve all molecular building blocks in their original
form. This holistic concept offers many advantages over priorly existing poly-imine materials in terms
of sustainability, resource availability, cost-effectiveness, and providing a high degree of structural
modularity for finetuning its material properties at will, to target a diverse range of applications.
Period of project
01 October 2026 - 30 September 2027