ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

The process of photopolymerization of acrylated soybean oil-based epoxides investigated by positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy

David Pavel Královič, Katarína Cifraničová, Ondrej Šauša, Helena Švajdlenková, Taras Kavetskyy, and Arnold Kiv

Department of Nuclear Chemistry, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovak Republic

E-mail: david.kralovic@uniba.sk

Received: 8 October 2022  Accepted: 27 November 2022

Abstract:

The lifetime spectra of positrons annihilating in polymer matrices based on acrylated epoxidized soybean oil (AESO) and a mixture with vanillin-dimethacrylate (VDM) were measured. The chemical structure of the polymer series AESO and AESO-VDM was investigated by NIR spectroscopy. The semi-empirical quantum mechanical Tao-Eldrup model was used to estimate the sizes of individual free volumes in these matrices. Investigation of free-volume properties of polymer matrices based on natural oils, which are intended for the construction of amperometric biosensors, allows a better understanding of the relationship between the crosslinking densities of the matrices, i.e. microscopic characteristics, and the main operating parameters of the biosensors. The free volumes of the investigated matrices before, during and after the photopolymerization process were determined. The influence of vanillin-dimethacrylate (VDM) and photoinitiator (PI) on the final microstructural properties of the investigated matrices was evaluated.

Keywords: Positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy; NIR spectroscopy; Soybean oil; Epoxides

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1007/s11696-022-02607-0

Chemical Papers 77 (12) 7257–7261 (2023)