UV-curable coatings of highly crosslinked trimethylmelamine based acrylates and methacrylates

The synthesis and characterization of N1,N2,N3-trimethylmelamine based (meth)acrylates and their application as components of UV-curable lacquers is described. A pre-condensed oligomeric mixture with a degree of condensation up to five is obtained via a one-pot conversion. Dividing the synthesis into two steps gives access to the mostly monomeric tris(meth)acrylates in overall yields higher than 76%. In general, the prepared compounds can easily be applied on glass, metal, and polystyrene glass affording highly transparent, hard, and scratch resistant coatings after UV-curing. The UV-cured monomeric trimethylmelamine trisacrylate was fully characterized by means of hardness, gloss, scratch-, abrasion-, and chemical resistance. Remarkably, the trimethylmelamine trisacrylate does not release cancerogen formaldehyde even at 150 °C.