Oxirane Cleavage Kinetics of Epoxidized Soybean Oil by Water and UV‐Polymerized Resin Adhesion Properties

Di‐hydroxylated soybean oil (DSO), a biobased polyol synthesized from epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) could be used to formulate resins for adhesives; however, current DSO synthesis requires harsh reaction conditions that significantly increase both cost and waste generation. In this paper, we investigate the kinetics of oxirane cleavage in ESO to DSO by water and elucidate the role of different process parameters in the reaction rate and optimization of reaction conditions. Our kinetic study showed that ESO oxirane cleavage was a first‐order reaction and that the ESO oxirane cleavage rate was greatly influenced by tetrahydrofuran (THF)/ESO ratio, H₂O/ESO ratio, catalyst content, and temperature. Optimized reaction parameters were THF/ESO of 0.5, H₂O/ESO of 0.25, catalyst content of 1.5 %, and reaction time of 3 h at 25 °C. DSO with hydroxyl value of 242 mg KOH/g was obtained under these conditions. We also characterized the structure, thermal properties, adhesion performance, and viscoelasticity of UV‐polymerized resins based on this DSO. The resin tape exhibited peel adhesion strength of 3.6 N/in., which is comparable to some commercial tapes measured under similar conditions.