Effects of unsaturation and different ring-opening methods on the properties of vegetable oil-based polyurethane coatings

A variety of vegetable oil-based, waterborne polyurethane dispersions have been successfully synthesized from different vegetable oil polyols exhibiting almost constant hydroxyl functionalities of 2.7 OH groups per molecule. The vegetable oil polyols, which have been prepared from vegetable oils with different fatty acid compositions (peanut, corn, soybean, and linseed oil), range in residual degree of unsaturation from 0.4 to 3.5 carbon–carbon double bonds per triglyceride molecule. The effects of residual unsaturation on the thermal and mechanical properties of the resulting polyurethane films have been investigated by dynamic mechanical analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, and thermal gravimetric analysis. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF) has been used to accurately determine the molecular weight and mass distribution of the vegetable oil polyols. Higher residual unsaturation results in polyurethane films with increased break strength, Youngʹs modulus, and toughness. This work has isolated the effect of unsaturation on vegetable oil-based polyurethane films, which has been neglected in previous studies. The effect of different oxirane ring opening methods (methanol, butanol, acetic acid, and hydrochloric acid) on the properties of the coatings has also been examined.