Plant biomass is considered the main source of renewable carbon raw materials, which is a viable alternative to crude oil and natural gas and provides compounds with a low carbon footprint. The most promising direction for the conversion of biomass is the synthesis of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, which is regarded as a platform chemical, the basis for the synthesis of valuable compounds, including monomers and polymers. The move of the polymer industry to renewable plant materials will contribute to solving global environmental problems and ensure the sustainability and environmental safety of plastics production. This review analyzes recent advances in the preparation of key C₆-furan platform chemicals, such as 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid, 2,5-diformylfuran, 2,5-bis(hydroxymethyl)furan, levulinic acid, and their use for the production of monomers and polymers based on renewable plant biomass. Production processes of widely known furan polyesters and polyamides, such as polyethylene-, polypropylene-, polybutylene furanoates, polyhexamethylene furanamide, are considered, as well as developments towards novel promising materials that are furan copolymers and polymer mixtures. For the first time, studies have been systematized aimed at converting liquid and solid wastes of the synthesis of platform chemicals, known as humins, into a range of value-added products, including organic compounds, porous carbon materials, thermosetting binders, and anticorrosive coatings that can replace similar materials based on fossil raw materials. Economic and environmental prospects and problems of production and consumption of furan polymers are considered. The bibliography includes 275 references.

Crosslinked polyethylene (XLPE) has been the cornerstone material in the power industry for insulating high-voltage cables due to its exceptional properties, including reduced dielectric loss, high dielectric constant and thermal conductivity, and excellent resistance to electrical stress. In the current study, in order to further enhance the electrical and mechanical properties of XLPE’s various types of nanofillers such as metal oxides, boron nitride nanosheets of nanosilica and graphene oxide are incorporated into the XLPE matrix. These nanoparticles promote the occurrence of numerous trap sites, even at modest concentrations, due to their extensive interfacial regions, which affect crucial characteristics including breakdown voltage strength, electrical tree growth, structural defects, space charge accumulation, and thermal aging. The present review summarizes the effects of nanoparticles on the dielectric performance of XLPE. At the same time, the current advancements in the development of a new generation of recyclable insulation materials are briefly discussed.

Nowadays, commercial electric double-layer supercapacitors mainly use porous activated carbons due to their high specific surface area, electrical conductivity, and chemical stability. A feature of carbon materials is the possibility of obtaining them from renewable plant biomass. In this study, fungi (Fomes fomentarius) were used as a bio-template for the preparation of carbon fibers via a combination of thermochemical conversion approaches, including a general hydrothermal pre-carbonization step, as well as subsequent carbonization, physical, or chemical activation. The relationships between the preparation conditions and the structural and electrochemical properties of the obtained carbon materials were determined using SEM, TEM, EDAX, XPS, cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic measurements, and EIS. It was shown that hydrothermal pretreatment in the presence of phosphoric acid ensured the complete removal of inorganic impurities of raw fungus hyphae, but at the same time, saved some heteroatoms, such as O, N, and P. Chemical activation using H₃PO₄ increased the amount of phosphorus in the carbon material and saved the natural fungus’s structure. The combination of a hierarchical pore structure with O, N, and P heteroatom doping made it possible to achieve good electrochemical properties (specific capacitance values of 220 F/g) and excellent stability after 25,000 charge/discharge cycles in a three-electrode cell. The electrochemical performance in both three- and two-electrode cells exceeded or was comparable to other biomass-derived porous carbons, making it a prospective candidate as an electrode material in symmetrical supercapacitors.