To achieve the unique advantages of silicone resin and
the free-radical/cationic
hybrid UV-curing mechanism, a free-radical/cationic hybrid UV-curable
silicone resin (MTQ-TQ-T) is synthesized from commercially available
siloxanes, hexamethyldisiloxane (MM, M segment), phenyltrimethoxysilane
(PTMS, T segment), γ-(2,3-epoxypropoxy)propyltrimethoxysilane
(KH560, T segment), (3-methacryloxy)propyltrimethoxysilane (KH570,
T segment), and tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS, Q segment). UV-curing
kinetics indicates that the polymerization efficiency of MTQ-TQ-T
initiated by free-radical and cationic dual photoinitiators is better
than that of a single photoinitiator. As the molar ratio of cationic
to free-radical photoinitiators (C/R) increases, the double-bond conversion
first increases and then decreases, but the epoxy group conversion
is the opposite. The optimal C/R and dose of dual photoinitiators
are 1.5 and 10 wt %, respectively. After UV-curing, the coating has
excellent overall performance including a gel content of 87.8%, a
Shore A hardness of 85, a tensile strength of 4.23 MPa, and an impact
strength of 5.48 kJ/m2. Its thermal decomposition temperature
of 5 wt % is 338 °C, and the yellowing index only increases
by 0.98 after thermal aging at 85 °C for 72 h. Moreover, UVMTQ-TQ1-T0.33 (the molar ratio, T/Q of 1 and KH560/570
of 0.33) shows good hydrophobicity with a contact angle of 87°,
and it is still 89° after thermal aging. In addition, the adhesion
of coating increases with the increase of epoxy groups, where UVMTQ-TQ1-T1 (the molar ratio, T/Q of 1 and KH560/570 of
1) has optimal adhesion with a shear strength and 180° peel strength
of 1.7 and 0.9 MPa, respectively. Therefore, this free-radical/cationic
hybrid UV-curable silicone resin will be used as aging-resistant coatings.