Oligoamine

What are Oligoamines?

Oligoamines are one or multiple amine groups being built into the functional acrylated oligomer structure to form amine acrylates or acrylated amine synergists.

These amine functionalities play a key role in UV-, LED-, and electron-beam-curable systems by reducing oxygen inhibition, improving cure speed, and enhancing reactivity when used in coating, inks, and adhesive applications.

With different characteristics, such as functionality, amine value, and viscosity listed in Rahn's product guide, different oligoamines can be chosen catering to your formulation systems
 

How Oligoamines Work?

Oligoamines work by combining amine functionality with acrylate reactivity. The amine function provides a hydrogen donor for the excited triplet state of the photoinitator. 
This reaction produces a reactive alkyl-amino radical for the following polymerization of acrylate-functional components of the formulation system.

Hence, in Energy Curing systems:

1. The acrylate groups undergo rapid polymerization through free radical mechanisms when exposed to Energy Curing.
2. The amine groups act as synergists, especially with Type II photoinitiators such as benzophenone, accelerating radical formation and significantly improving cure speed and surface cure performance.
3. Amine acrylates also reduce oxygen inhibition, due to the amines reacting fast with peroxy radicals in oxygen and converting them to reactive alkyl-amino radicals, allowing a more complete surface cure even in oxygen rich environments.

Key Benefits of Oligoamines

• Fast curing speed – Accelerates polymerization in Energy Curing systems
• Excellent surface cure – Reduces oxygen inhibition, leading to tack-free surfaces
• Optimal and flexible formulation design – Enables performance tuning of hardness, flexibility, viscosity, and crosslink density
• Improved curing reliability – High reactivity and fast cure speed assures high-speed industrial applications with the consistent and reliable results