Synthesis and properties of UV-curable polyurethane acrylates with reactive silicones

Abstract

Over the past few years, silicone-based polymers have been widely studied because silicone shows unique surface properties, such as hydrophobicity, film formability, etc and then silicone-based compounds are being mainly applied to the coating field. To have these characteristics in coatings, it is crucial that silicone component participates in covalent bonding. In this research, UV-curable polyurethane acrylates (PUAs) with different molecular weights and contents of reactive silicones were synthesized to improve the surface and mechanical properties of coating films. The synthesized PUAs were identified with FT-IR spectra and the mechanical properties of the cured PUAs films were investigated by UTM. The water contact angle of the cured PUAs was measured by the drop shape analyzer and the gloss values of PUAs were measured by a gloss meter. Finally, the optimum content of reactive silicones in the PUAs was obtained.