Strong and UV-Responsive Plant Oil-Based Ethanol Aqueous Adhesives Fabricated Via Surfactant-free RAFT-Mediated Emulsion Polymerization

Biomass-based polymeric materials have recently garnered a lot of attention from both academic and industrial realms, owing to their important roles for addressing environmental issues and achieving sustainable developments. As one of the cheapest and most widely available biomass feedstock, plant oils are promising to produce polymeric materials for replacing petroleum-based counterparts. However, there is lack of a green and highly effective method to prepare outstanding plant oil-based polymeric materials, limiting their potential applicability. In this work, surfactant-free RAFT-mediated emulsion polymerization was explored for the fabrication of plant oil-based ethanol aqueous adhesives. A series of plant oil-based ethanol aqueous adhesives have been successfully fabricated by introducing thymine-containing monomers to tackify the adhesives. The obtained ethanol aqueous adhesives showcase outstanding adhesive properties for distinct substrates and tunable adhesive performance upon UV irradiation. This work highlights that surfactant-free RAFT-mediated emulsion polymerization is a straightforward and feasible approach to fabricate prominent polymeric materials including adhesives or coatings from biomass feedstock such as plant oils.

Automated summary

The study investigates the fabrication of plant oil-based ethanol aqueous adhesives using surfactant-free RAFT-mediated emulsion polymerization, achieving outstanding adhesive properties that can be tuned upon UV irradiation. This method demonstrates a straightforward approach to fabricate prominent polymeric materials from biomass feedstock such as plant oils.