Preparation and characterization of ultraviolet (UV) radiation curable resin from palm oil

Abstract

A study on the preparation of ultraviolet (UV) curable polymers based on renewable materials (vegetable oil) has been done to improve the performance of existing polymers and compete with their corresponding petrol-based chemicals in different aspects, including environmental friendly and economic factors. In this study, a UV curable resin was prepared using palm oil and glycidyl methacrylate. Monoglyceride (MG) from palm oil was prepared using alcoholysis process. Then, the MG was treated with glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) at different ratios of GMA/MG to produce MG–GMA resin. The prepared resin was characterized using different techniques, such as hydroxyl number determination, gas chromatography (GC), and gel permeation chromatography (GPC). From the results, GMA/MG ratio influenced the properties of MG–GMA resin. The weight-average molecular weight (M w) of the resin increased as the ratio of GMA/MG was increased. However, M w decreased after exceeding a limit of GMA/MG ratio. This was probably due to homopolymerization of GMA monomer during the treatment of MG with GMA. A similar trend was also observed in the result of viscosity. It is also noticed that the hydroxyl number of MG increased as more glycerol was used in the glycerol/palm oil mixture in the alcoholysis process. From the results of GC, it was shown that the percentage of MG increased when the ratio of glycerol/palm oil increased. This indicated that most of the hydroxyl group was contributed by the presence of MG. The prepared resin was then exposed to UV radiation and the results indicated that resin could be cured by UV radiation.