Author(s)

Geoffrey R. Mitchell^*, Sara Biscaia, Vidhura Subash Mahendra, Artur Mateus

Centre for Rapid and Sustainable Product Development, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Marinha Grande, Portugal.

The design, process and synthesis of high value composite materials from forests in scientific research has been widely discussed in recent times ensuring greater awareness and accessibility to its associated communities and the economy in general. Raw materials obtained from the forests can be multi-folded in its use as a virgin source of an energy provider such as wooden blocks to more complex processed material development. In this paper, we will be focusing on the latter related to sustainable development of rosins. Rosins are exudates of pine resins which consist of hydrophobic characteristics that are widely used as a precursor for many applications without significant alterations. We discuss the nature, process and its support in composite material. The composite material has been tailored with related to chemical and physical properties. Chemically rosins contain free carboxyl acid functional group and carbon-carbon double bonds which are potent to react with other reactive species to facilitate various intermediates. Here we have looked at its reaction intermediates and subsequent products for composite material of high value using environmentally friendly methodologies, such as solvent free methods. Biodegradable polymer incorporated composite scaffolds using rosins are studied to tailor the bioactivity. We treat the eco-friendly pine resins which is biocompatible to complement the biopolymers as the process of extracting rosin from pine resin is a particular green process, involving only a natural product (pine resin) and producing no waste. The paper discusses the preparation of composite scaffolds for use in tissue engineering applications.

Biopolymers, Composites, Tissue Engineering, Scaffolds, Biomanufacturing

Mitchell, G. , Biscaia, S. , Mahendra, V. and Mateus, A. (2016) High Value Materials from the Forests. Advances in Materials Physics and Chemistry, 6, 54-60. doi: 10.4236/ampc.2016.63006.