Novel Coatings Based on Mixtures of Blown Soybean Oil and Acrylate Prepolymers

By Peihong Ni, Frank N. Jones, Shoukuan Fu

Soybean oil (SBO) is an inexpensive, biorenewable commodity material. It is widely used in alkyd resins for coatings, and its derivatives are used to modify various resins.1-4 Blown soybean oil (BSBO) is prepared directly and economically from SBO. It has been a commercial commodity for decades.5-8 In view of the potentially abundant supply of BSBO and its low cost, it is surprising that few published studies have addressed the properties and applications of BSBO as a raw material for coatings. Commercial BSBO, which is an oligomer of SBO, might be an attractive starting material for prepara­tion of coatings since its viscosity and molecular weight are higher than SBO. One consideration is that BSBO contains hydroperoxide and/ or peroxide residues from the blowing process. These residues may be a drawback or an advantage; in this study we try to make use of them.

The possibility that these (hydro)peroxides could be utilized to generate free radicals and initiate polymeriza­tion of monomers to form coating films was explored. Our approach is to blend BSBO with di- and tri­(meth)acrylate monomers and prepolymers, to cast coat­ing films, and to cure and evaluate the coatings. Dry film properties such as pencil hardness, MEK double rub resistance, adhesion, and impact resistance, have been evaluated using standard methods.9, 10 The results of this research show that low VOC, high-solids coatings can be made by this approach.