Synthesis of water-soluble urethane acrylate anionomers and their ultra-violet coating properties

Water-soluble and ultraviolet (UV)-curable urethane acrylate anionomers containing dimethylolpropionic acid (DMPA) were synthesized with varying molecular weight of soft segment and degree of neutralization. The ion group incorporated was confirmed by H-NMR and ¹³C-NMR spectra. In viscosity measurements, the enhancement of viscosity was achieved with increasing of ionic strength or pH of the solution. However, when the molecular weight of soft segment was high, the viscosity little changed for given parameters. This indicates that the strong hydrophobic interaction caused by the long soft segment made the anionomer chain aggregate. The UV coating properties of urethane acrylate anionomer films were depended on the molecular weight of soft segment and the degree of neutralization. For the films of high ion content and low molecular weight of soft segment, the tensile strength had a tendency toward increasing, on the contrary, for the films of low ion content and high molecular weight of soft segment, the tensile strength displayed reverse tendency. However, compared with general urethane acrylate films, overall coating properties were significantly improved. This was believed that the ionic, groups acted as reinforcing filler by means of the phase separation from the crosslinked urethane acrylate network.