Polymer Bulletin, Vol.73, No.2, 571-585, 2016
Synthesis and properties of a low-viscosity UV-curable oligomer for three-dimensional printing
A novel photosensitive low-viscosity epoxy acrylate resin was synthesized by utilizing polyethylene glycol diglycidyl ether (PEGGE) and acrylic acid (AA) as starting materials. The structure of polyethylene glycol diglycidyl ether diacrylate (PEGGEA) was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). 2-Isopropyl thioxanthone (ITX), ethyl 4-(dimethylamino) benzoate (EDAB) and 2-benzyl-2-(dimethylamino)-1-[4-(4-morpholinyl) phenyl]-1-butanone (369) as photoinitiators and trihydroxymethyl propane triacrylate (TMPTA) as monomer were mixed with PEGGEA to prepare a kind of UV-curable resins, which may be utilized to boost the resin curing under UV light. The UV-curing properties and the thermal stability of the prepared resins with different contents of oligomer were investigated using FTIR-attenuated total reflection (ATR) spectroscopy and TGA. The viscosity of the oligomers and the mechanical properties of the cured resins were also studied. The results showed that the content of oligomer will affect the UV-curing properties and the thermal stability of the UV-curing resins. The viscosity of the prepared UV-curing resins was less than 200 mPa s at 25 degrees C, and the hardness of cured resins was high than 6H, which could meet the requirements for three-dimensional printing (3DP).