Title: Study on soybean oil based thermosetting resin and its composites

Abstract

Environmentally friendly polymers based on biomass have been attracting much attention, and one of hot concerns is making low-priced soybean oil into polymers with higher values. Each fatty acid chain in the triglyceride mixture of soybean oil contains a single or multiple double bonds. Epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) with a higher reactivity, which can be used in the synthesis of high bio-based polymers, is obtained through an epoxidation process of double bonds in soybean oil. In our work, the evolution of the curing process of epoxidized soybean oil was simulated by molecular dynamics simulation, and the thermomechanical properties of epoxidized soybean oil cured by a series of different amine and anhydride were predicted, and the relationship between structure and properties was established. Then thermoset reins with more than 90% bio-based carbon content were prepared by the curing reaction between ESO and a derivative of rosin acid, maleopimaric (MPA). Curing behavior and structure-activity relationship were also studied. Acrylated epoxidized soybean oil (AESO) was prepared by ring-opening reaction of ESO with acrylic acid, and an innovative biobased UV coating synthesized from acrylated epoxidized soybean oil and poly(octamethylene maleate (anhydride) citrate) was developed. Carbon nanotubes were modified with poly(acrylated epoxidized soybean oil) to improve their dispersibility in polymer matrixes to obtain ESO-based nanocomposites with good performance. These results could provide new approaches for the preparation of novel bio-based thermoset resins with excellent performance.