Glycerol carbonate methacrylate: A cross-linking agent for hydroxyurethane-acrylate coatings

Poly(meth)acrylates are well-known commodity polymers widely used for coating applications due to easy production, low cost and interesting properties such as their relatively high thermal stability, resistance to breakage and transparency. Some of these properties can be improved by cross-linking, therefore an additional functionalization is necessary. Carbonate group allowed reaction with amines to generate a urethane linkage without the use of toxic and harmful isocyanates. We have synthesized (meth)acrylic copolymers functionalized with cyclic carbonates groups using butyl acrylate (BA), methyl methacrylate (MMA) and glycerol carbonate methacrylate (GCMA) as comonomers to obtain cross-linkable polymers. Different ratios of BA and MMA have been used in order to evaluate the effect on the thermo-mechanical properties. The cross-linking was performed with tris(2-aminoethyl)amine at 80 °C during 2 h and was quantitative. The cross-linked hydroxyurethane acrylate copolymers were fully characterized and were used as coatings on glass and steel. The ease of the application and curing process as well as the adhesion strength tests showed that these cross-linked copolymers are promising materials as coating on glass and steel.