UV-curing behavior and adhesion performance of polymeric photoinitiators blended with hydrogenated rosin epoxy methacrylate for UV-crosslinkable acrylic pressure sensitive adhesives

UV-crosslinkable polyacrylates were synthesized for use as pressure sensitive adhesives (PSAs). These polyacrylates acted as polymeric photoinitiators due to the benzophenone incorporated into their backbones. Hydrogenated rosin epoxy methacrylate (HREM; based on hydrogenated rosin and glycidyl methacrylate) was also synthesized as a tackifier, and blended at different levels with the synthesized, UV-crosslinkable polyacrylates for use as PSAs. The effect of the new tackifier, HREM, on the properties of the UV-crosslinkable PSAs was examined in comparison with the properties exhibited by PSA/hydrogenated rosin blends. The characteristics of these PSA/tackifier blends were examined by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and an advanced rheometric expansion system (ARES). In addition, the adhesion performance of the PSA blends was investigated using probe tack tests. DSC and ARES revealed all the PSA blends with HREM or hydrogenated rosin to be miscible at the molecular level. The glass transition temperature (T_g) of HREM was −25.6 °C, which is lower than that of other commercially available rosin tackifiers. FTIR revealed changes in the relative concentration of benzophenone groups in the PSAs at 1580 cm⁻¹, which demonstrated that the crosslinking efficiency is proportional to the benzophenone content and UV dose, but decreases with increasing hydrogenated rosin content. However, the reduced crosslinking reaction efficiency was improved in the PSA/HREM blends due to the low T_g of HREM which only slightly increased the T_g of the PSA blends. Moreover, the relative initial decrease in the probe tack of the PSA/HREM blends was lower than that of the PSA/hydrogenated rosin blends after UV irradiation.