A novel, facile and straightforward approach to achieve high-performance and efficient utilization of sustainable tyrosine cyclic peptide

The preparation of high-performance thermosets from sustainable raw resources is a vital research topic in current society faced with the pressure of resource shortage and environmental deterioration. In this work, the cyclic peptide dominated hydrogen bonding physical cross-linking network (HB–PCN) and promoted nitrile reaction produced chemical cross-linking network (NC–CCN) were utilized to achieve the target. A novel bio-based thermoset was prepared by co-polymerization of 70% of tyrosine cyclic peptide (TCP) and 30% of 1,3-bis(3,4-dicyanophenoxy) (3BOCN). Thermal analysis was applied to determine the unique curing behavior of this system. The cured resin exhibits excellent thermal properties and relatively high glass transition temperature (Tg), which embodies the characteristics of typical high-performance polymers and reaches a trade-off between biomass content and performance. The curing reaction pathway of this system was reasonably proposed by Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis. Moreover, scanning electron microscope (SEM) confirmed that TCP-3BOCN blend could form porous material via ambient-molding and hot-sintering process. Ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis) spectrometer was employed to quantitatively describe the adsorption capability of the porous materials to methyl violet. [Display omitted] •A novel high-performance thermoset was prepared by a facile co-polymerization of tyrosine cyclic peptide and phthalonitrile.•The curing reaction of this system contains a switch from physical network to chemical network.•The resin exhibits relatively high thermal properties with a biomass content of 70%.•A molding-sintering process was used to cure this resin with a porous structure.