Catalytically Active Vegetable‐Oil‐Based Thermoplastic Hyperbranched Polyurethane/Silver Nanocomposites

Sunflower oil‐based HBTPU/Ag and LTPU/Ag nanocomposites have been prepared by in situ catalytic reduction of a silver salt. The virgin polymer and their nanocomposites are soluble in various polar organic solvents and amenable for both solution‐casting and hot pressing. XRD, TEM, and UV spectroscopic analyses ascertained well‐dispersed, narrow‐sized Ag nanoparticles. Tensile testing, dynamic mechanical, thermogravimetric, and DSC analyses showed desirable mechanical and thermal features with improvement upon incorporation of Ag nanoparticles and the presence of a hyperbranched component in the nanocomposites. RSM has been used to evaluate the catalytic efficacy of the nanocomposites.

     

Bio-degradable vegetable oil based hyperbranched poly(ester amide) as an advanced surface coating material

Vegetable oil based hyperbranched poly(ester amide) (HBPEA) has enormous importance because of its unique characteristics. Thus the synthesis of HBPEA using N,N′-bis(2-hydroxy ethyl) castor oil fatty amide, maleic anhydride, phthalic anhydride and isophthalic acid as A₂ monomers and diethanol amine, as B₃ monomer was reported for the first time. The chemical structure of the synthesized resin was characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H NMR and ¹³C NMR) spectroscopic techniques. The degree of branching (DB) (as vouched by ¹H NMR analysis) and initial degradation temperature were found to increase with the increment in B₃ monomer content. Resins with 5 and 10 wt% of B₃ monomer showed shear thinning behavior while rheopectic nature of HBPEA with 15 wt% of B₃ content was observed. The evaluation of tensile strength, elongation at break, abrasion resistance, adhesion strength, scratch hardness, gloss, impact strength and chemical resistance complemented by microbial and lipolytic degradation forward the epoxy cured thermosets as advanced biodegradable surface coating materials.