Synthesis and application of novel UV-curable hyperbranched methacrylates from renewable natural tannic acid

• Biorenewable tannic acid-based hyperbranched methacrylates (TAHAs) were synthesized.
• TAHAs were applied to AESO based UV curable coatings as efficient toughening agents.
• Hybrid UV-curable coatings produced good performance and high biorenewable content.

With a view to developing high performance UV curable coatings with high renewable contents, acrylated epoxidized soybean oil (AESO) was combined with a novel kind of biorenewable tannic acid-based hyperbranched methacrylates (TAHAs). The TAHAs were synthesized by ring-opening reaction of glycidyl methacrylate (GMA), glycidyl ester of Versatic acid (CE10) and natural tannic acid (TA). The epoxy groups of GMA and CE10 were involved in the ring-opening reaction with the hydroxyl groups of TA while residual methacrylate groups can carry out photopolymerization. By controlling the ratio of GMA and CE10, TAHAs with varying degree of methacrylate groups have been prepared. The synthesized TAHAs were formulated into acrylated epoxidized soybean oil (AESO) based UV curable coatings to produce the biorenewable materials based UV curable coatings. The effects of TAHAs on AESO coated film properties of pendulum hardness, flexibility and adhesion were investigated. Mechanical properties, thermal properties and biodegradability of the cured films were also evaluated. With the incorporation of TAHAs, the hardness, adhesion, tensile strength of the cured coating films were remarkably improved, which were attributed to the unique structure of hyperbranched methacrylates. Meanwhile, the biorenewable content was not greatly decreased due to the biorenewable character of tannic acid in TAHAs. These results showed that TAHAs as efficient toughening agents could produce UV-curable coatings of balanced coating performance with reasonably high biorenewable content. Moreover, the environment degradability of AESO-based cured films was also enhanced after the addition of TAHAs.

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