Preparation of pressure-sensitive adhesives from tung oil via Diels-Alder reaction

In this study, tung oil was polymerized with a dimaleimide (4,4'-methylene-bis(N-phenylmaleimide) (MPMI) and two diacrylates (poly(propylene glycol) diacrylate (PPGDA) and bisphenol A glycerolate diacrylate (BPAGDA) via Diels-Alder reaction (DA reaction) to prepare pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSAs). On the one hand, the polymer of tung oil and MPMI was readily prepared however it was too rigid to serve as a PSA. On the other hand, the polymerization of tung oil with PPGDA or BPAGDA resulted in PSAs with peel strengths ranging from 0.1 to 0.2 N cm−1 and loop tacks ranging from 0.4 to 0.5 N. Nevertheless, tung oil reacted readily with acrylic acid to form adducts (TOAA) with lower content of conjugated diene groups than those of tung oil. The use of TOAAs instead of tung oil to polymerize PPGDA failed to increase the peel strength of the resulting PSAs. However, polymerizations of TOAAs with BPAGDA resulted in PSAs with much higher peel strengths and much higher loop tacks than the polymerization of tung oil with BPAGDA. In addition, the introduction of a small amount of MPMI in the polymerization of TOAA and PPGDA significantly shortened the curing time.