Development and Study of a Coupling Agent for Photocurable Hybrid Thiol/Ene/Cationic Formulations

It is demonstrated that the mechanical properties of the resulting polymers can be enhanced by adding a coupling agent to a hybrid thiol/ene/cationic system. The coupling agent was a hybrid monomer with methacrylic and epoxycyclohexyl groups linked by a tetramethyldisiloxane moiety. The methacrylic group of the coupling agent reacted in a first stage with the components of the thiol/ene system obtaining a polymer functionalized with epoxycyclohexyl groups. This polymer could react further with the epoxy monomer of the cationic system to form a copolymer. The viscoelastic properties of the obtained polymers were compared by DMA, finding an increment in the storage modulus of the polymers with the coupling agent, ranging from 18 to 67%. magnified image