DOI: 10.36347/sajb.2014.v02i02.013

Pages: 141-143

Polyol resins are high molecular weight highly crosslink polymer with hydroxyl functionality, they are found useful in polyurethane and surface coating industries. They are basically two methods used in synthesis of polyol from vegetable oils, notably direct hydroxylation (one-step synthesis) and two-step synthesis via epoxidation and alcoholysis, with the two-step method commonly used. The focus of this paper is to review the development in the last decade on the synthesis of polyol from vegetable oils with specific focus on the various syntheses methods that have been adopted in production of polyol from vegetable oils, the review showed that the two-step synthesis method commonly used in the production of polyol from vegetable oil have some drawbacks associated with it when compared with the one-step synthesis method, though the one-step synthesis method is not without some drawbacks, but is more advantageous compare with the former in polyol production. The review also pointed out some of the drawbacks of the two-step synthesis method, the advantage associated in producing polyol using one-step synthesis and the synthesis of higher polyhydric alcohol from vegetable oil using the one-step process that could substitute polyol derivatives used in akyd-resin modification and surface coatings.