The growing interest in replacing petrochemical materials with those based on renewable resources has generated renewed interest in the chemistry of fats, oils, polysaccharides, and other biobased chemicals. Thermosetting polymer systems are commonly made from epoxy resins, phenol-formaldehyde resins, and various petrochemical-based polyols cured using melamine-formaldehyde and polyisocyanate resins. These thermosets are used in numerous applications such as coatings, adhesives and composites. Obtaining comparable physical and mechanical properties when replacing petrochemical resins with biobased resins has proven challenging. We have found that synthesizing reactive resins having a high degree of functionality can lead to crosslinked systems having high modulus and strength. Starting with epoxidized resins made from sucrose as polyol and vegetable oil fatty acids, a family of resins and thermosets can be obtained. The highly functional epoxy resins can be directly crosslinked using anhydrides to yield high modulus thermosets useful in composites. Polyols can be synthesized and crosslinked using polyisocyanates yielding high Tg materials useful in coatings. The resins can also be acrylated and photopolymerized using UV radiation to yield hard and tough coatings.

High crosslink density biobased thermosets for coatings and composites

244th National Meeting (2012)

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