Development of acrylated soybean oil-based UV-curable coatings with high impact strength from low viscosity oligomer

Preparation and Properties of Plant-Oil-Based Epoxy Acrylate-Like Resins for UV-Curable Coatings

Novel oil-based epoxy acrylate (EA)-like prepolymers were synthesized via the ring-opening reaction of epoxidized plant oils with a new unsaturated carboxyl acid precursor (MAAMA) synthesized by reacting maleic anhydride (MA) with methallyl alcohol (MAA). Since the employed epoxidized oils including epoxidized soybean oil (ESO), epoxidized rubber seed oil (ERSO), and epoxidized wilsoniana seed oil (EWSO) possessed epoxy values of 7.34–4.38%, the obtained epoxy acrylate (EA)-like prepolymers (MMESO, MMERSO, and MMEWSO) indicated a C=C functionality of 7.81–4.40 per triglyceride. Furthermore, effects of the C=C functionality and the addition of hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) diluent on the ultimate properties of the resulting UV-cured EA-like materials were investigated and compared with those of commercially available acrylated ESO (AESO) resins. As the C=C functionality increased, the storage modulus at 25 °C (E’₂₅), glass transition temperature (T_g), 5% weight–loss temperature (T₅), tensile strength and modulus (σ and E), and hardness of the coating for both the pure EA and EA/HEMA resins increased significantly as well. These properties indicated similar trends when comparing the EA materials with 30% of HEMA with those pure EA materials. Specially, although ERSO had a clearly lower epoxy value that ESO, both the UV-cured pure MMERSO and MMERSO/HEMA materials showed much better E’₂₅, T_g, σ, and E than their AESO counterparts, indicating that the MAAMA modification of epoxidized plant oils was much more effective than the modification of acrylic acid to achieve high-performance oil-based epoxy acrylate resins.

Fatty Acid-Based Radically Polymerizable Monomers: From Novel Poly(meth)acrylates to Cutting-Edge Properties

The increasing price of barrels of oil, global warming, and other environmental problems favor the use of renewable resources to replace the petroleum-based polymers used in various applications. Recently, fatty acids (FAs) and their derivatives have appeared among the most promising candidates to afford novel and innovative bio-based (co)polymers because of their ready availability, their low toxicity, and their high versatility. However, the current literature mostly focused on FA-based polymers prepared by condensation polymerization or oxypolymerization, while only a few works have been devoted to radical polymerization due to the low reactivity of FAs through radical process. Thus, the aim of this Review is to give an overview of (i) the most common synthetic pathways reported in the literature to provide suitable monomers from FAs and their derivatives for radical polymerization, (ii) the available radical processes to afford FA-based (co)polymers, and (iii) the different applications in which FA-based (co)polymers have been used since the past few years.