Safety risk assessment of epoxy acrylate prepared by ring-opening esterification of epoxy resin and acrylic acid

Epoxy acrylate is produced by esterifying epoxy resin and acrylic acid through a ring-opening reaction. This process is highly exothermic and can be challenging to control gel formation. The thermal hazards of epoxy acrylate preparation were evaluated in this study by investigating the ring-opening esterification reaction between acrylic acid (AA) and bisphenol A epoxy resin (E-51) catalyzed by triethylamine (TEA). The heat release during the reaction process was analyzed using a reaction calorimeter (RC1 mx ) to simulate industrial conditions. Increasing the TEA catalyst content from 0.3 to 1.0 mass% resulted in a significant rise in reaction conversion from 75.35 ± 0.10% to 98.44 ± 0.10%. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and accelerating rate calorimeter (ARC) were used to examine the thermal runaway process during epoxy acrylate synthesis. Increasing the TEA content from 0.3 to 1.0 mass% decreased the initial reaction temperature from 60.16 ± 0.62 to 45.33 ± 0.40 °C and the critical temperature of side reactions from 153.71 ± 1.51 to 117.85 ± 1.19 °C. The severity of the runaway was classified as medium at process temperatures of 80–110 °C. This study highlights the importance of considering reaction conditions to prevent uncontrolled reactions during epoxy acrylate synthesis, providing valuable insights for industrial epoxy acrylate preparation.