Fabrication of UV-absorbent cellulose-rosin based thermoplastic elastomer via "graft from" ATRP

Cellulose-rosin based thermoplastic elastomers with UV absorption properties were fabricated by a combination of rosin, poly(butyl acrylate) (PBA) and ethyl cellulose (EC) via "graft from" ATRP with the aid of EC-rosin macroinitiator (EC-g-(DA)-Br) prepared by a simple esterification reaction between EC, dehydroabietic acid (DA, one of rosin's resin acids) and 2-bromoisobutylryl bromide. The introduction of rosin affords these elastomers with UV absorption property. And the glass transition temperature of these EC-rosin grafted copolymers could be tuned by changing the content of PBA. Moreover, the introduction of PBA to EC endowed EC-g-(DA)-g-PBA with a good film-forming property and excellent thermoplastic elastomer behavior. All of these EC-rosin grafted copolymers showed an excellent UV absorption performance, and maintained outstanding UV absorption capability after continuous UV-irradiation or being heated to 115 °C for 1 h. As a result, these EC-rosin grafted copolymers have a potential application in coating materials with UV absorption property.