Bio-based succinic acid provides researchers and product developers a valuable and innovative sustainable platform chemical for differentiable, high-performance polyurethane (PU) materials. Bio-based succinic acid and its derivatives have demonstrated performance advantages in a variety of applications, including personal care products, non-phthalate plasticizers, and polymeric derivatives used in urethanes, polyesters, and alkyd resin technologies.
Figure 1 shows a schematic of the various synthetic pathways by which succinic acid can be transformed to diesters, diols, and high-molecular-weight polyesters and polyester polyols. Along with succinic acid, key succinate derivatives include polyester polyols,1,4 butane diol (BDO) and tetrahydrofuran (THF).