“Thiol-ene” photo-cured hybrid materials based on POSS and renewable vegetable oil

We demonstrate here a series of hybrid materials based on thiol-contained polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS-OA/SH) and acrylated caster oil (ACO), which can be photo-cured through “thiol-ene” reaction. The fast photo-crosslinking reaction between POSS and ACO was traced by FT-IR, which is insensitive to oxygen gas. Compared with the pure ACO, the hybrid component of POSS-OA/SH and ACO exhibited much faster photo-cured speed upon the exposure of UV-light. The obtained hybrid materials were transparent to visible light and no obvious phase-separation was observed. AFM and SEM demonstrated that POSS nanoparticles were well-dispersed in the ACO matrix without obvious aggregation even if the content of POSS is higher than 60%. The introduction of POSS can decrease the surface energy of the obtained hybrid materials. The thermal stability of the obtained hybrid materials increased with the increase of POSS content. These characteristics gave the obtained hybrid material potential application in coating, and these studies provided a novel alternative approach to prepare the hybrid materials from the renewable source.