# 2-Methoxy-4-Vinylphenol as a Biobased Monomer Precursor for Thermoplastics and Thermoset Polymers
## 4 Conclusions  
Lignin-derived ferulic acid (FA) can act as the basis for producing 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (MVP), resulting in a biobased versatile monomer platform. In this work, MVP was functionalized to prepare biobased monomers that could be readily used in solution and emulsion polymerization, thus expanding its use in free-radical polymerization targeting thermoplastic applications. It was found that the biobased homopolymers exhibited lower \(T_{g}\) values compared to other styrene-like polymers due to the increased mobility provided by the varying functional groups. Moreover, the MVP-platform monomers were successfully copolymerized with styrene, resulting in stable emulsions with a biobased content of up to 10 wt.%. However, future endeavors must focus on increasing the biobased content in PS emulsions and perhaps partially replacing PS with MVP. Additionally, MVP was functionalized to prepare divinylbenzene (DVB)-like monomers that were thermally cured with thiol crosslinkers bearing three (3T) or four (4T) thiol units, in an attempt to investigate their potential in thermosetting applications. Their thermomechanical properties were influenced by both the length of the aliphatic chain connecting the MVP units and their crosslinking density (v\({}_{\rm e}\)). In particular, \(T_{g}\) was tuned by increasing the aliphatic length, thus increasing for the samples containing 4T since their v\({}_{\rm e}\) values were greater compared to their 3T counterparts. Their mechanical properties were found to be mainly affected by v\({}_{\rm e}\), where a better performance above the glass transition was achieved for samples with higher v\({}_{\rm e}\). However, to unlock the full potential of MVP-derived thermosets, their preparation protocol has to be further fine-tuned, as competition be \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Sample Name** & \(E^{{}^{\prime}}_{-\mathbf{50}\cdot\mathbf{c}}\) & \(E^{{}^{\prime}}_{\mathbf{80}\cdot\mathbf{c}}\) & \(T^{tan}_{g}\) & \(T_{g}\) & \(v_{e}\) & **Gel** \\  & **(MPa) 1** & **(MPa) 2** & (°C) 3** & (°C) 4 & (mol/m3) 5 & **Content** \\ \hline X(1,3-MVP-3T) & \(1350\pm 300\) & \(2.4\pm 0.8\) & \(31\pm 2\) & \(29\pm 2\) & \(0.3\pm 0.1\) & 98 \\ \hline X(1,3-MVP-4T) & \(2000\pm 560\) & \(7.5\pm 1.1\) & \(38\pm 1\) & \(34\pm 1\) & \(0.9\pm 0.2\) & 67 \\ \hline X(1,6-MVP-3T) & \(2370\pm 40\) & \(2.3\pm 0.3\) & \(40\pm 1\) & \(22\pm 2\) & \(0.3\pm 0.1\) & 81 \\ \hline X(1,6-MVP-4T) & \(2030\pm 290\) & \(6.3\pm 0.3\) & \(53\pm 2\) & \(36\pm 2\) & \(0.7\pm 0.1\) & 78 \\ \hline X(1,10-MVP-3T) & \(2120\pm 230\) & \(2.8\pm 0.8\) & \(30\pm 1\) & \(4.5\pm 0.1\) & \(0.3\pm 0.1\) & 94 \\ \hline X(1,10-MVP-4T) & \(2040\pm 75\) & \(7.0\pm 1.2\) & \(33\pm 1\) & \(18.9\pm 0.4\) & \(0.8\pm 0.2\) & 95 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* Storage modulus at \(-50\) °C. 2 Storage modulus at 80 °C. 3 Obtained from the maximum of tan8. 4 Obtained from DSC. 5 Crosslinking density evaluated using Equation (S4) [54]. 6 Gel content calculated using Equation (S5) [51]. All thermomechanical data are average values over three samples.  
\end{table} 
Table 2: Properties of MVP-based crosslinked thermosets. tween homopolymerization of the DVB-like monomers and crosslinking with thiol-bearing reagents was identified. Through this work, we demonstrated the possibilities of MVP-derived monomers in thermoplastic and thermosetting applications. We created a library of monomers that can undergo radical polymerization, targeting new biobased functional materials as alternatives to their fossil-based counterparts.