Effects of silicone resins on copolymerization of acrylated epoxidized soybean oil

Abstract

In this work, effects of the silicone resins on copolymerization of the acrylated epoxidized soybean oil were investigated. Rheological characteristics, curing behaviors, and thermal properties of acrylate epoxy soybean oil prepolymer (AP), silicone prepolymer (SP), and their hybrids (AP/SP) were studied in detail. Spots in a snowflake pattern were observed on the fracture section surface of cured AP/SP hybrid resins by SEM. According to the change of polymer groups revealed by Fourier transform infrared, a possible reaction between AP and SP was proposed. The curing mechanism of AP/SP hybrids was researched, which was suggested to be an autocatalytic curing process. Furthermore, the degree of cure, the activation energy (Eα) and the reaction frequency factor (A) of the curing reaction were estimated. It was found that the cure kinetic of AP/SP hybrid resins could be well‐described by a Sesthk‐Bergglen model with the numerical optimization based on the Kissinger method and the Malek approach. The experimental results show that the mass retention rates of AP/SP hybrid resins were significantly increased after curing, indicating that the thermal stability of AP was enhanced with the addition of SP.