Synthesis and characterization of polymerizable epoxy resin surfactants

Polymerizable epoxy resin (PER) surfactants have been prepared from the reaction of bisphenol A epoxy resin with acrylic acid, followed by the reaction with polyethylene glycol (PEG) with different molecular weights. The reaction procedures were monitored by chemical titrations, infrared spectroscopy, and NMR. The products show typical surface-active properties as but much higher water solubility than nonpolymerizable nonionic surfactant OP-10. With the increase of PEG's molecular weight, the HLB value, the water solubility, and the critical micellar concentration (CMC) of the PER surfactants, the cloud point of the PER surfactant solutions, as well as the solubilization capability of the PER surfactants to organic compounds increase under the experimental conditions. The copolymerization under UV radiation indicated that about 75-80 wt % of PER surfactants participated in the copolymerization with epoxy diacrylate (EdA), except for the PER surfactant with the lowest PEG molecular weight of 1 k. (c) 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015, 132, 42598.