Preparation of multifunctional silicone acrylate prepolymers with anti-oxygen inhibition ability for application in UV-curable anti-smudge coatings

Novel multifunctional silicone acrylate prepolymers were synthesized via a hydrosilylation reaction between dipentaerythritol hexaacrylate (DPHA) and hydride-terminated polydimethylsiloxane (H-PDMS). These prepolymers show efficient anti-oxygen inhibition abilities. After the addition of a few photoinitiators (PI-1173), the prepolymers could be rapidly cured to yield transparent films which exhibit good transparency, heat resistance, and hydrophobicity. These films have potential applications as UV-curable anti-smudge and anti-fingerprint coatings. • Novel silicone acrylate prepolymers were synthesized via a one-step method. • These prepolymers show efficient anti-oxygen inhibition abilities. • The prepolymers can be cured to form films after brief UV radiation in air. • The films exhibit excellent transparency, hydrophobicity and anti-smudge properties. UV curing technology is a new green technology developed in the 21st century, and has been widely used in daily life and industrial production. However, a major drawback encountered with UV curing is oxygen inhibition, especially in free radical photopolymerization. As reported herein, three multifunctional silicone acrylate prepolymers were obtained via the one-step hydrosilylation of dipentaerythritol hexaacrylate (DPHA) and hydride-terminated polydimethylsiloxane (H-PDMS). These prepolymers contain five acrylate groups at each end of the polysiloxane chain, and also has a high viscosity, all of which contribute to overcome oxygen inhibition, and thus they have efficient anti-oxygen inhibition abilities. After the addition of a few photoinitiators, each of the prepolymers could be rapidly cured in air to yield a transparent film. The transparency of these cured films is over 95% on the surface of an underlying polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate. They remain stable at temperatures reaching up to 352.2 to 364.8 °C, thus demonstrating that they have excellent heat resistance. Water droplets exhibit water contact angles between 103° and 105° on these films, and surface energies of the cured films are from 24.58 to 20.69 mN/m. Finally, the coatings have good anti-smudge and anti-fingerprint properties, and the overall results show that these films have potential applications as UV-curable anti-smudge coatings.