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B. Husar, A. Mautner, C. Heller, P. Esfandiari, F. Varga, J. Stampfl, R. Liska:
"Low toxic alternatives to (meth)acrylates: Vinyl esters, vinyl carbonates, and vinyl carbamates";
Talk: RadTech Asia 2013, Shanghai; 05-20-2013 - 05-24-2013; in: "Guide Book", (2013).

Acrylates and methacrylates are the state-of-the-art monomers for radiation curable decorative and protective coatings. They are appreciated for high curing rates, good storage stability, tunable mechanical properties, and allow solvent free processing. On the other hand, their irritancy and sometimes cytotoxicity present serious health hazards. Due to environmental issues it could be be expected that the use of such monomers will be regulated in consumer applications. There are not many alternatives if one wants to sustain the excellent performance profile of (meth)acrylates and the polymers thereof along with lower irritancy or cytotoxicity of the monomers. Vinyl esters, vinyl carbonates, and vinyl carbamates are good candidates as alternatives due to 1-3 orders of magnitude lower cytotoxicity than (meth)acrylates [1-3]. Storage stability is higher than those of (meth)acrylates. Their reactivity lies between acrylates and methacrylates. Low reactivity of monomers containing abstractable hydrogens can be overcome by addition of thiols [4,5]. Excellent storage stability has been recently proven by an innovative stabilization concept [6]. This novel class of monomers have not attracted industry´s attention until now due to expensive synthetic methods although recently developed affordable routes [7] offer prospect for their increasing use, which may afford even cheaper monomers than (meth) acrylates. Furthermore, poly(vinyl esters) and poly(vinyl carbonates) form FDA approved poly(vinyl alcohol) as a degradation product that makes these materials suitable for biomedical applications.

[1] B. Husár and R. Liska, Chem. Soc. Rev. 2012, 41, 2395-2405.
[2] C. Heller et al., J. Polym. Sci. A Polym. Chem. 2011, 49, 650-661.
[3] C. Heller et al., J. Polym. Sci. A Polym. Chem. 2009, 47, 6941-6954.
[4] A. Mautner et al., Macromol. Rapid Commun. 2012, 33, 2046-2052.
[5] A. Mautner et al., J. Polym. Sci. A Polym. Chem. 2013, 51, 203-212.
[6] Z. Cherkaoui et al., Wo. Pat. 2012126695, 2012.
[7] W. Staffel et al., Wo. Pat. 2008084086, 2008.

Acknowledgement. The support by the European Commission in the framework of Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowships (IEF) through the project "VINDOBONA" (No. 297895) is gratefully acknowledged.

meth(acrylate), monomers, toxicity