## 1 Introduction  
In the past decade, vegetable oils have received a lot of attention as an attractive bio-renewable starting material for the preparation of bio-based polymers. Polymers prepared from vegetable oils have the advantage of being versatile due to their easily tunable properties, which can be simply adjusted with changes in the resin composition. Applications in biomedicine, construction, furniture, adhesives, and coatings can benefit from the development of vegetable oil-based polymers and composites. It is widely accepted that fossil fuels are limited and non-renewable in practical terms [1]. It is, therefore, imperative to continue research for more sustainable alternatives in order to alleviate economic stress and petroleum depletion impacts in the polymer and composites industry. Furthermore, the development of bio-renewable alternatives offers materials with the potential of exhibiting a positive environmental impact, especially with respect to current waste disposal concerns. Polyurethanes [2; 3], polyester amides [4], polyolefins [5], and alkyl resins [6] are just some of the current resins on the market that can be prepared from vegetable oils. In order to improve mechanical properties, these resins have been reinforced with inorganic fillers, such as clays [7]. The difficulty with binding between vegetable oil-based polymers and reinforcement lies within typical incompatibility of common hydrophobic resins and hydrophilic fillers. In vegetable oil-based thermosets reinforced with rice hulls [8], and wood flour [9], mechanical property improvements have been made by enhancing the reinforcement-resin interactions with the addition of maleic anhydride as a co-monomer. In another study, asolectin, a phospholipid mixture isolated from soybeans previously used as a synthetic protein transport vessel [10; 11], was employed as a bio-based compatibilizer between cellulose and a tung oil-based matrix [12]. The amphiphilic nature of asolectin, with long unsaturated carbon chainsand a highly polar phosphate group, ensures its role as an ideal bio-based compatibilizer. Indeed, an enhancement of the thermo-mechanical properties was observed with the addition of asolectin to tune oil/cellulose composites [12]. Industrially, vegetable oils find use in biofuels, drying agents, food, cosmetics, soap and detergents, and pharmaceuticals [13]. The chemical structure of vegetable oils consists of a triglyceride, which corresponds to glycerol esters connected to fatty acids. The carbon-carbon double bonds in unsaturated vegetable oils are ideal reactive sites for the chemical industry, offering a chemical handle for modifications leading to a variety of bio-based precursors [14]. Most unsaturated oils must be modified before free radical polymerization due to the low reactivity of non-conjugated carbon-carbon double bonds towards free radicals. In tung oil, approximately 83% of the fatty acid chains are \(\alpha\)-eleostearic acid, a naturally triply-conjugated fatty acid. The naturally conjugated carbon-carbon double bonds in tung oil (at carbons 9-_cis_, 11-_trans_, and 13-_trans_) [15] can readily react with free radicals and polymerize in the presence of oxygen [14]. The co-polymerization of tung oil with vinyl co-monomers via cationic, thermal, or free radical polymerizations results in rigid, crosslinked polymers [16]. Other studies have further shown that a biopolymer can successfully be prepared from tung oil by cationic polymerization for self-healing applications in the curing of micro-cracks [17]. Due to the reactivity of tung oil and the promising thermo-mechanical properties obtained from tung oil-based/cellulose composites [12], it was hypothesized that an improvement in the compatibility of the matrix and the reinforcement can be obtained, without compromising the bio-based nature of the system, by using tung oil fatty acids as the major resin component. Cellulose is a hydrophilic polysaccharide composed of repeating D-glucose units linked through \(\beta\)-(1-4)-glycosidic bonds [18].