A new acrylated monomer from macaw vegetable oil that polymerizes without external photoinitiators

The photopolymerization process has been widely studied due to its use in painting/coating, dentistry, creating photoresist materials and more recently in 3D printing. Therefore, new monomers have been synthesized to be used in this growing area. Here, a new Brazilian biomass derived, renewable monomer from macaw vegetable oil is presented. This monomer can self-polymerize without photoinitiation under UV light, reaching a monomer conversion of 75% and a conversion of 88% when ethyl 4-(dimethylamino)benzoate is present as a coinitiator. Furthermore, the final polymer has an orange color under visible light and exhibits fluorescence (a blue color) under UV radiation. Monomers and polymers formed from macaw (macaúba) vegetable oil are thermally stable up to 220 °C, as evidenced by thermogravimetry (TG). The polymers formed also exhibited a glass transition temperature of 2.6 °C, as observed in differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) curves and dynamic-mechanical analysis (DMA). This new monomer presents an alternative monomer to be used in 3D printing, in a similar manner to other vegetable oils such as soybean and linseed.