Bio‐based nanocomposites composed of photo‐cured epoxidized soybean oil and supramolecular hydroxystearic acid nanofibers

A mixture of epoxidized soybean oil (ESO), (R)-12-hydroxystrearic acid (HSA) and a photoinitiator for cationic polymerization in the ESO/HSA weight ratio 10/1 was heated to 100 °C and gradually cooled to room temperature to give bio-based gelatinous material. The photo-curing of the gel afforded a nanocomposite composed of crosslinked ESO and supramolecular HSA nanofibers. The transmission electron microscopy observation of the photo-cured ESO/HSA revealed that dendritic clusters of HSA nanofibers are formed in the crosslinked ESO matrix. In the differential scanning calorimetry chart of the ESO/HSA, a thermal transition from the mesophase composed of supramolecular nanofibers to isotropic state was observed at 67 °C (ΔH = 22.6 J/g-HSA), while the T m of crystalline HSA is 77.7 °C (ΔH m = 159 J/g-HSA). Tensile strength at 20 °C of the ESO-HSA was ∼80% higher than that of photo-cured ESO without HSA.

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