Development of soy-based UV-curable acrylate oligomers and study of their film properties

Bio-based coating materials have emerged as an environmentally friendly alternative to petrochemical based ones due to their sustainability, lower carbon footprint and often lower cost. Acrylated vegetable oils and their derivatives are increasingly preferred for advanced photo-curable "green" coatings due to a number of technical and commercial benefits. We report a novel family of acrylate-functional monomers/oligomers derived from epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) and epoxidized soy-methyl ester (EME), using 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate (HEA) as an acrylating agent. Using super-acid catalyzed etherification, acrylated soy-monomers and oligomers with lower viscosity and high acrylate content have been synthesized. Soy-acrylate products are characterized for their chemical structures and functionality using chemical, physical and spectroscopic methods. In order to investigate their suitability and usefulness. UV-cure coatings have been studied using soy-acrylates as primary components. Compositions containing blend of soy-acrylates and conventional polyester acrylates have also been studied. The results of the study show that these new families of acrylated soy-oligomers are promising candidates for environmentally friendly and sustainable UV-cure coatings for diverse end-use applications. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.