Radiation-induced formation of acrylated palm oil nanoparticle using pluronic F-127 microemulsion system

This study demonstrated the utilization of radiation-induced initiator methods for the formation of nanoparticles of Acrylated Palm Oil (APO) using aqueous Pluronic F-127 (PF-127) microemulsion system. This microemulsion system was subjected to gamma irradiation to form the crosslinked APO nanoparticles. Dynamic light scattering (DLS), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) were used to characterize the size and the chemical structure of the nanoparticles. As a result, the size of the APO nanoparticle was decreased when the irradiation dose increased. The decrease in size might be due to the effects of intermolecular crosslinking and intramolecular crosslinking reactions of the APO nanoparticles during irradiation process. The size of the nanoparticle is in the range of 98 to 200 nanometer (nm) after irradiation using gamma irradiator. This radiation-induced method provides a free initiator induced and easy to control process as compared to the classical or chemical initiator process. The study has shown that radiation-induced initiator methods, namely, polymerization and crosslinking in the microemulsion, were promising for the synthesis of nanoparticles

Production of UV-curable palm oil resins/oligomers using laboratory scale and pilot scale systems

In recent years, there are growing trends in using palm oil as raw materials in radiation curable resins production. In this study, the acrylated palm oil resins i.e. the EPOLA (epoxidized palm oil acrylate) and the POBUA (palm oil based urethane acrylate) were synthesized using two different systems, i.e. the 25 liter pilot scale reactor synthesis system and the 2 liter (L) laboratory scale reactor synthesis system through chemical processes known as acrylation and isocyanation. In this paper, the property of the acrylated resins which were produced by these two systems were evaluated and compared between each other. Their properties were characterized using the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrophotometer for functional group identification; the gel permeation chromatography (GPC) for molecular weight (Mw) determination, the Brookfield viscometer for viscosity measurements, the acid values (AV) and the oxirane oxygen contents (OOC) analysis. As a result, the production process for both the 2 L and 25 L reactor system were found to be time consuming and the main advantages for the 25 L reactor was its higher productivity as compared with the 2 L reactor system with the same synthesis process parameters i.e. the temperatures and the experimental methods. Besides that, the 25 L reactor synthesis process was found to be safe, easy to control and served unpolluted process to the environments. The final products, the acrylated palm oil resins were formulated into ultraviolet (UV) curable compounds before subjecting them under UV irradiation. As a result, the UV-curable palm oil resins showed potential uses as pressure sensitive adhesives, printing inks including overprint varnishes (OPV) and coatings