Biobased Nonvolatile Rheology Modifier as a Superior Alternative to Styrene for Pultrusion

Sustainable and well-performing biobased compounds have attracted enormous attention for modern industrial applications. This work presents isosorbide monomethacrylate as a nonvolatile, reactive, liquid, and polar compound capable of substituting for styrene in conventional pultrusion. This proposed molecule was synthesized through an industrially scalable approach, ensuring a high product yield, negligible residue generation, and complete separation of secondary products. Isosorbide monomethacrylate exhibits lower curing reaction temperatures and volatility compared with currently used styrene. Its diluting potential was investigated and quantified using the Arrhenius temperature dependency. A successful pultrusion was performed using isosorbide monomethacrylate as a diluent, resulting in similar thermal stability and flexural modulus as the commercial composites. The isosorbide monomethacrylate-containing composites exhibited an almost 16% increase in the flexural strength and a more than 13% increase in the interlaminar shear strength. Therefore, this proposed, synthesized, and characterized molecule holds enormous potential to substitute for styrene for high-performance pultrusion applications.