Biobased pyrazines: from amino acids to polyesters

Curiosity and sustainable development go hand in hand to help with the major problems of our time. This thesis shows how curiosity driven research can result in new insights. The thesis describes the development new building blocks from biomass, which have never been used in materials before, and their subsequent use in plastics. These plastics were found to have interesting properties, and very small changes in the building blocks turned out to have large effects on these properties. In depth investigation of the physical basis for these changes in properties show that they are caused by weak (molecular) interactions. These interactions have never been reported in plastics either. The new fundamental insights gained in structure property relationships will help to develop the plastics of the future.