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Nowadays most of the synthetic polymers are
derived from non-renewable fossil oil. Environ-
mental pollution has to be inevitably generated dur-
ing their production. Besides, discards of the end-
products are hard to be degraded. For keeping in
step with societal concerns on energy crisis and
ecological problems, reduction in the usage of
petrol-based materials becomes more and more
important. As a result, natural polymers are receiv-
ing increasing attention.
Since the traditional natural polymers (e.g., silk,
rubber, etc.) cannot meet the tremendous needs of
application in terms of species or properties, great
efforts have to be continuously made to develop
new polymers from natural resources. Compared to
the non-degradable polymers from renewable
resources, the materials that emulate the perform-
ance of petrol-based polymers while keeping bio-
degradability seem to be more promising.
In fact, bio-based polymers have been under inves-
tigation for many years. Both chemical and micro-
bial approaches proved to be feasible to convert
natural substances. The successful examples in this
aspect are cellulose plastics (from cotton, woods,
etc.), polylactide (PLA, from corn, sugarcane, etc.),
polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA, from glucose), starch
plastics and soybean plastics, etc.
As mentioned above, however, many biodegrad-
able polymers are based on food and feed, which
are not cost-effective enough at present. Their
applications have to be confined to some specific
areas with high added value. In this context, manu-

facturing affordable and fully biodegradable poly-
mers from annually renewable resources except
food and feed coupled with low-cost processing
techniques are critical. Attempts in this direction
have been started, like plasticized wood sawdust,
plant fibers reinforced plasticized wood sawdust,
plasticized plant fibers, etc.
Although achievements in the field of green poly-
mers are far from satisfactory, the new opportuni-
ties that were found during research and develop-
ment have demonstrated it is a challenging job to
invent new species with balanced performance.
Interdisciplinary studies based on tight collabora-
tion among scientists and governmental supports
are prerequisites for overcoming the difficulties.
Moreover, enterprises should be actively involved
because they will gain benefit from production and
usage of these new materials in the long term.

406

*Corresponding author, e-mail: ceszmq@mail.sysu.edu.cn
© BME-PT and GTE

Editorial corner – a personal view
Polymeric materials from natural resources – 
emerging as the times require

M. Q. Zhang*

Materials Science Institute, Zhongshan University, Guangzhou 510275, P. R. China

eXPRESS Polymer Letters Vol.1, No.7 (2007) 406
Available online at www.expresspolymlett.com
DOI: 10.3144/expresspolymlett.2007.57

Prof. Dr. Ming Qiu Zhang
Member of International Advisory Board