Photo-cured Materials from Vegetable Oils

Abstract

Photo-polymerization technology, which exhibits high efficiency and low energy consumption has been widely studied and applied in many areas such as coatings, adhesives, printing inks and so on. This technology is based on high-performance photo-initiators e.g. high quantum yield for radical formation, high reactivity and compatibility toward the monomer, low odor and toxicity, low mobility and good stability. However, the monomers that are used to form photo-cured materials are mainly derived from petroleum products. The petroleum in the Earth will last for fewer than 100 years, hence, in the past few decades, much attention has been paid to feedstocks for polymers based on renewable resources. One of the most stable and renewable resources is vegetable oils. Vegetable oils have already been utilized extensively in coatings, inks, lubricants, resins, agrochemicals and plasticizers. Because of the presences of CC bonds in vegetable oils, they can be easily functionalized with reactive groups such as epoxy, hydroxyl, carboxyl and acrylate. These functionalized vegetable oils have been used to prepare polyurethane, elastomers, plastics and pressure-sensitive adhesives. In contrast to feedstocks extracted from petroleum, vegetable oil feedstocks are non-toxic and friendly to the environment. Therefore, in view of the attractive advantages of both photo-curing technologies and vegetable oils, it is worth the energy and money required to research and develop photo-cured materials based on vegetable oils.