Herein we report a green route to thermoplastics from cellulose, the terpenoid geraniol, and fossil fuel byproduct sulfur with an overall atom economy of 90% over three steps. The only stoichiometric byproducts are NaCl and water. The process involves (1) oxidation of cellulose, (2) amino acid-catalyzed esterification, and (3) cross-linking of olefins with sulfur to give GCS_x (x = wt % sulfur, varied from 80–90%). The thermoplastics exhibit flexural strengths and moduli competitive with some commercial materials and are recyclable without loss of strength. The method delineated herein should be applicable to many combinations of saccharide and terpenoid precursors to facilitate similarly green routes to a range of sustainably sourced materials.

中文翻译：

---

从萜类纤维素酯绿色合成热塑性复合材料

在本文中，我们报告了从纤维素，萜类香叶醇和化石燃料副产物硫到热塑性塑料的绿色路线，该方法在三个步骤中的总体原子经济性为90％。唯一的化学计量副产物是氯化钠和水。该过程涉及（1）纤维素的氧化，（2）氨基酸催化的酯化作用，以及（3）烯烃与硫的交联以生成GCS _x（x =硫的重量百分比，从80-90％不等）。热塑性塑料表现出抗弯强度和与某些商业材料竞争的模量，并且可循环使用而不会损失强度。本文所述的方法应适用于糖和类萜前体的许多组合，以促进类似的绿色路线通往一系列可持续来源的材料。