Studies on physico‐mechanical and optical properties, and WAXS of castor oil based polyurethane/polyacrylates interpenetrating polymer networks

Interpenetrating polymer networks (IPNs) of polyurethane (PU)/polyacrylates have been synthesized by sequential polymerization of castor oil, methylene diisocyanate (MDI), and acrylate monomers such as methyl acrylate (MA), methyl methacrylate (MMA), and ethyl acrylate (EA); with benzoyl peroxide (BPO) and ethylene glycol dimethyl acrylate (EGDM) as an initiator and crosslinker, respectively. The physico‐mechanical properties, such as density, surface hardness, tensile strength, percentage elongation at break, and tear strength; and the optical properties, like total transmittance and haze, of PU/polyacrylate IPNs have been reported. Microcrystalline parameters of IPNs have been computed by using wide angle X‐ray scattering (WAXS) recordings.