Volume Shrinkage Characteristics for Vinyl Ester Resin-Montmorillonite Nanocomposites

摘要

Adding specific thermoplastic polymers as low profile additives (LPA) in the unsaturated polyester resins (UP) can lead to a reduction or even elimination of the polymerization shrinkage during the cure. By employing non-reactive LPA, microvoids can be generated during the cure, which can then compensate for the volume shrinkage. In contrast, by employing reactive LPA, the intrinsic polymerization shrinkage may be reduced, which is due to the reduction in cyclization reaction of UP resin during the cure caused by the favorable intermolecular crosslinking reaction between UP and reactive LPA, In recent years, nanocomposites based on montmorillonite (MMT) and UP have been investigated quite extensively. The volume shrinkage for the UP-MMT nanocomposites has also been treated by some researchers.