Amide Acrylate versus Urethane Acrylate Monomers in Radiation Curing Furmulations

Urethane functionalities are often introduced into coatings for toughness. This increased toughness is attributed in part to the hydrogen bonding capacity (physical network) of the urethane group. Generally, most of the urethane acrylate raw materials are difunctional or oligomeric. To date, there are a limited number of monofunctional urethane acrylates available as reactive diluents. In this paper we present the possibility of using a monofunctional amide acrylate monomer generated from an oxazoline as alternative reactive diluent capable of hydrogen bonding, to monofunctional urethane acrylates in radiation curable formulations. The synthesis and evaluation of the ethyl amide acrylate by real time infra-red (RT-FTIR), pendulum hardness, solvent resistance and photo-ageing studies indicate that this may be an alternative to urethane acrylate monomers.