Morphology and mechanical properties of UV-curable castor oil-based waterborne polyurethane/organic montmorillonite nanocomposites

Water resistance is a unique advantage of castor oil-based polyurethane, permitting the application of coatings in humid environments. However, its low thermal decomposition temperature remains a limitation. Here, to demonstrate a simple method to improve the thermal stability of cured films, we prepared an organic montmorillonite dispersion utilising 3-(methacryloyloxy) propyltrimethoxysilane and protonated 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane for modifying the clay. The method was put into practice by directly mixing the dispersion with a UV-curable castor oil- based waterborne polyurethane dispersion. The inclusion of organic molecule chains from the silane coupling agents noticeably improves the compatibility of polyurethane with organic montmorillonite, which imparts the composite latex with better thermal stability and mechanical properties when the organic montmorillonite additive is 5.0 wt-%.