For the last decade, renewable resources, predominantly plant/vegetable oils, have become promising for making biobased polymers and polymeric materials. Recently, series of stable latexes with high solid content and monomer conversion were synthesized from plant oil-based acrylic monomers (POBMs) using miniemulsion process. After polymerization, the double bonds of fatty acid fragments in plant oil-based monomers remain mostly unaffected and were further used for crosslinking of latex films. Both the copolymerization conditions (molecular weight of latex copolymers) and properties of latex film (crosslinking degree of latex films) are impacted by unsaturation amount of POBMs. The incorporation of plant oil-based fragments provides the plasticizing effect to the resulting latex copolymers, as seen by noticeable decrease of glass transition temperature (Tg) by increasing POBM content in the resulting copolymers. It is demonstrated that crosslinking degree of latex films and, their thermomechanical properties can be controlled by simply mixing various POBMs at certain ratios in the monomer feed. Besides, the presence of POBM fragments enhances hydrophobicity of latex films, as shown by water contact angle increases. Recently, we attempted synthesis of latex copolymers from POBMs and cardanol-based methacrylate monomer (CBM). It is demonstrated that combination of long fatty acid fragments of POBMs with benzene ring in CBM structure provides a balance of stress and strain in the resulting copolymers and yields fully biobased durable latexes. As a result, 100% plant oil-based latexes were synthesized from different amounts of CBM (10-75 % wt. in monomer feed) and various POBMs (25-90 % wt.), characterized and tested on coatings performance. The obtained results are promising since incorporation of already 10 % wt. of CBM fragments provides noticeable stiffness to the latex films while the presence of POBMs delivers flexibility, thus optimizing overall toughness of the latex materials.

Influence of plant oil-based monomers structure on properties of latex copolymers thereof

2019 Spring National Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.