Novel inorganic/organic hybrid materials based on blown soybean oil with sol-gel precursors

New ceramer coatings based on blown soybean oil with sol-gel precursors wer e prepared and evaluated as a function of the blowing process and sol-gel p recursors content. Soybean oils were blown at three different rates in orde r to optimize the blowing process. Three sol-gel precursors, titanium (IV) i-propoxide, titanium (IV) di-i-propoxide bis-acetoacetonate. and zirconium n-propoxide were then used with the blown oil to investigate the effect of sol-gel precursors content on film properties. The gelation and film prope rties of ceramer coatings were dependent on chemical composition, which was a function of blowing time and blowing rate. Both tensile properties and g eneral coatings properties (including adhesion, hardness, impact resistance , and flexibility) were investigated as a function of sol-gel precursor con tent. In general, higher sol-gel precursor content increased tensile streng th and modulus, but decreased impact resistance. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.