Renewable epoxidized cardanol-based acrylate as a reactive diluent for UV-curable resins

A novel kind of biobased monomer, epoxidized cardanol-based acrylate (ECA), was successfully synthesized from cardanol via acrylation and epoxidization. The chemical structure was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and proton nuclear magnetic resonance. Then, the ECA was employed to produce UV-curable films and coatings copolymerized with castor oil-based polyurethane acrylate. Compared to coatings from petroleum-based diluent hydroxyethyl acrylate-based castor oil-based polyurethane acrylate resins, ECA-based biomaterials exhibited a little inferior dilution ability but overcome the drawback of high volumetric shrinkage with a special lower value. Moreover, ultimate properties of the UV-cured biomaterials such as thermal, mechanical, coating, swelling, and hydrophobic properties were investigated. The UV-curing behavior was investigated using real-time IR, and the overall double bond conversion was more than 90%. This biobased UV-curable cardanol-based diluent shows a promise in green + green materials technologies.