Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 1
Photo-cured Materials from
Vegetable Oils
YANCHANG GAN AND XUESONG JIANG*
School of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong
University, Shanghai 200240, People's Republic of China
*Email: ponygle@sjtu.edu.cn
1.1 Introduction
Photo-curing is one of the most effective processes for the rapid transfor-
mation of liquid multifunctional monomer resins to cross-linked polymer
networks.
1-3
Photo-curing technology has found an increasing number of
industrial applications over the past decade due to its unique benefits, for
example solvent-free formulations, and high-speed and room-temperature
processing.
4,5
Photo-curing technology has become attractive, especially in
the paint, ink, adhesive, optical disk, photo-lithography and coating indus-
tries due to its very low consumption of energy and its low emissions of
volatile organic compounds.
6,7
The raw materials for photo-curing technology such as monomer resins,
photo-initiators and functional additives, are usually produced from fossil
oil. However, due to the growing demand for petroleum-based products and
the resulting negative impact on the environment, there has been a growing
interest in the utilization of renewable resources as an alternative to pet-
roleum-based polymers.
8
The replacement of petroleum-based raw materials
with renewable resources constitutes a major contemporary challenge in
terms of both economical and environmental aspects.
9
