The Effectiveness of UV-LED Photopolymerisation over Conventional UV-Mercury for Polyurethane Acrylate Coating

This paper presents the effect of UV-LED and UV-mercury as the light source toward curing behaviour of urethane acrylate coating. The UV-curable coating was prepared based on aliphatic urethane acrylate oligomer, 2-ethylhexyl acrylate (2-EHA), methyl methacrylate (MMA), trimethylolpropane triacrylate (TMPTA), and commercial photoinitiator. The effect of irradiation time on curing behaviour was investigated using Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) and the percentage of C=C conversion was calculated. From the ATR-FTIR spectra, the C=C absorption peak at 810 cm-1 and 1635 cm-1 was found to be decreased after UV irradiation, indicated the proceeding of the polymerisation reaction. In term of C=C conversion, UV-LED irradiation showed better results with 97-99% than UV-mercury irradiation which is 86-96%. It was also observed that the tackiness of the coating reduced via UV-LED irradiation, suggesting higher conversion of monomers. Gel fraction of the coating also measured and higher gel fraction values, > 98% in this study was associated with higher cross-linking density. The results of this study depicted that UV-LED is a viable alternative to replace UV-mercury-based lamp in the coating industry.