The majority of work presented covers an investigation in to vegetable oil based monomers for use in low ‘volatile organic compounds’ (VOC) or VOC free paints. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to recent EU legislation into the reduction of VOCs in a wide variety of paints and coatings. This is followed by an overview of vegetable oil based chemistry and subsequently the use of vegetable oils within materials, specifically coatings. Chapter 2 discusses the synthesis of a selection of vegetable oil derived monomers using a number of different diamines and aminoalcohols to produce fatty amides with methacrylate, styrene and maleate functionalisation. A selection of 3 vegetable oils with varying degrees of unsaturation (soybean oil, rapeseed oil and cocoa butter) were trialled to see the effect the starting oil had on the subsequent monomers. Removal of some or all of the unsaturation within the fatty chains of the triglycerides and monomers was carried out, primarily as a way to potentially reduce yellowing often found in paints derived from a vegetable oil source. Chapter 3 introduces the technique of emulsion polymerisation, followed by the incorporation of a selection of the methacrylate monomers synthesised in the previous chapter into polymer latexes. Comparisons of the latex properties are made and the results of a variety of tests (DSC, MFFT, hardness, yellowing ability) described. Comparisons between unsaturated and epoxidised derivatives are made and conclusions drawn. Chapter 4 focuses on the preparation of polyurethanes (PU) from a small library of renewable diols. These were synthesised using both cocoa butter and rapeseed oil with diethanolamine, followed by epoxidation of the residual unsaturation in some cases. These were reacted with MDI and a variety of commercial diols (PEGs and 1,4-butanediol) and their physical properties (tensile strength, Young’s modulus, swelling and cross-linking density) and thermal properties analysed by a variety of methods (TGA, DSC). Chapter 5 describes the BF3.Et2O catalysed ring-opening of a small range of epoxidised oils derived from rapeseed and cocoa butter to give higher molecular weight pre-polymers/oligomers suitable as polyols for PU synthesis. Two approaches to the monomers are described. Chapter 6 describes the experimental conditions and chemical analysis of the all the key reactions and processes described in the thesis.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:582332 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Woodcock, Deborah L. |
| Publisher | University of Warwick |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/57120/ |
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