High performance radiation curable hybrid coatings

Radiation curing is one of the most effective processes to produce rapidly composite materials at ambient temperature. Silica nanoparticles can be introduced into radiation curable resins to produce scratch and abrasion resistant materials, which can be used as sealants or clear coatings. In preparation of radiation cured polymeric composites for wood based products such as medium density fiberboard etc., we synthesized radiation curable silico-organic nanoparticles from silica/acrylates system. These nano-sized silica particles were used as fillers. Epoxy acrylates was used as prepolymer while pentaerythritol triacrylate and tetraacrylate (PETIA) was used as monomer. The acrylated epoxy resin synthesized from palm oil based product (EPOLA) i.e. bio-renewable raw materials was also used in the system. The surface of the silica was chemically modified to improve the embedding of the filler within the acrylate matrix. Modification of the silica surface using silane was done to overcome the problem of incompatibility with acrylates at high silica contents. The nature of the nanoparticles is now changed from hydrophilic to organophilic. In these investigations, we use low energy electron beam accelerator to initiate polymerization and interaction at the interface between the nanoparticles and the monomeric materials. These polymerization active nanoparticles were obtained by heterogeneous hydrolytic condensation of the silane to the silanol groups of the silica particles. Formulations useful for technical coating processes could be prepared and these composite materials showed highly improved mechanical properties. They also provided a high network density whilst the coatings remain transparent. These polymeric nanocomposites show excellent resistances toward abrasion properties including scratch property as compared to pure acrylates. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.