Synthesis of soybean oil-based thiol oligomers

Industrial grade soybean oil (SBO) and thiols were reacted to generate thiol-functionalized oligomers via a thermal, free radical initiated thiol-ene reaction between the SBO double bond moieties and the thiol functional groups. The effect of the reaction conditions, including thiol concentration, catalyst loading level, reaction time, and atmosphere, on the molecular weight and the conversion to the resultant soy-thiols were examined in a combinatorial high-throughput fashion using parallel synthesis, combinatorial FTIR, and rapid gel permeation chromatography (GPC). High thiol functionality and concentration, high thermal free radical catalyst concentration, long reaction time, and the use of a nitrogen reaction atmosphere were found to favor fast consumption of the SBO, and produced high molecular weight products. The thiol conversion during the reaction was inversely affected by a high thiol concentration, but was favored by a long reaction time and an air reaction atmosphere. These experimental observations were explained by the initial low affinity of the SBO and thiol, and the improved affinity between the generated soy-thiol oligomers and unreacted SBO during the reaction. The synthesized soy-thiol oligomers can be used for renewable thiol-ene UV curable materials and high molecular solids and thiourethane thermal cure materials.