Chemoenzymatic synthesis of oil-modified acrylic monomers as reactive diluents for high solids coatings

Over the past few decades high solids coating has gained widespread acceptance in industry due to improved performance, reduction in cost and the meeting of VOC regulations. One attractive approach for achieving high solids coating is through the use of a reactive diluent in the system. In the present study, the chemoenzymatic synthesis of oil-modified acrylic monomers has been reported. The diglyceride separated by column chromatography from partial esters synthesized by lipase-catalyzed transesterification of soybean and linseed oil with n-butanol (Step I) was further subjected to acryloylation or methacryloylation to yield oil-modified acrylate or methacrylate monomer, respectively. The newly synthesized monomers were characterized by IR, ¹H NMR, solubility, resin compatibility and their evaluation as reactive diluents in high solids coating compositions.