INFLUENCE OF AMINE STRUCTURE ON THE POST-CURED PHOTOYELLOWING OF NOVEL AMINE DIACRYLATE TERMINATED ULTRAVIOLET AND ELECTRON-BEAM CURED COATINGS

The post ultraviolet (UV) and electron beam (EB) cured photo-yellowing of nine novel amine terminated diacrylate monomers has been compared with that of standard commercial diethylamine diacrylate monomer using second order derivative UV absorption spectroscopy. Whilst all the UV cured monomers exhibited an initial rapid growth in UV absorption followed by a rapid photo-bleaching, the EB cured monomers exhibited a very slow growth in absorption followed by a plateau and subsequent slow photo-bleaching. In the former case the residual benzophenone photo-initiator is sensitising the photo-yellowing reaction and its subsequent photo-bleaching. Differences in the rates may be determined by the nature of the exciplex between the terminal amine groups and the benzophenone initiator. With regard to the nature of the amine structure all the simple alkylamines exhibit the greatest degree of photo-yellowing whilst hydroxyl containing amines are generally lower. In the former case methylene hydrogen atoms alpha to the nitrogen atom are important for abstraction. Dicyclohexylamine provides the most stable monomer toward photo-yellowing due to the stability of the alpha methylene hydrogen atoms and steric hindrance by the two bulky cyclohexane rings towards the formation of conjugated chromophores. For the EB cured monomers the degree of photo-yellowing increases with increasing alkyl chain length of the amine group due to the increased possibility of the formation of conjugated chromophores. © 1990.