Polymers have been widely used over the last years and therefore have a great impact on our everyday life. In the early days of plastic use, materials made from natural resources like cellulose, sugar or lignin were predominantly used. However, as industry progressed, the focus shifted to petrochemicals and as a result petroleum-based plastics were increasingly produced. Only in the near past, with rising environmental awareness and higher energy prices, there has been a rethinking and thus the development of plastics and additives from renewable raw materials. 

Depending on the field of application, the materials must have different properties, which they should not lose even when exposed to external influences such as UV radiation, moisture or shear. Meanwhile, new plastics are rarely introduced to the market, which means that the desired material properties are tailored through the use of additives. The wish to move away from fossil based additives to preserve resources for future generations as well as the fact that some conventionally used additives are suspected of promoting health risks has increased the demand for natural alternatives. In addition, most commercial stabilizers are petroleum-based, which can lead to limited usability in toys, medicine or food packaging, as migration of the additive from the material often cannot be ruled out. 

This lecture focuses on elucidating the structure-property relationships of different structures based on natural phenolic derivatives. In nature, phenolic antioxidants such as derivatives of cinnamic acid or benzoic acid are widespread. In contrast, phosphites or phosphonites and (partially) aromatic amines are hardly common. Research has therefore focused on the former structures, with phenols derived from natural products often having the disadvantage of limited temperature stability as well as low solubility in the polymer. In addition, there is a lack of knowledge about long-term thermal stability. Accordingly, they are still less efficient than petrochemical stabilizers. Actual research topics and results will be presented and an outlook and overview for phenolic additives based on own experiments will be given.