THERMAL STABILITY AND COMPATIBILITY OF EPOXY/POLYCARBONATE AND EPOXY/TETRAMETHYL POLYCARBONATE BLENDS

摘要

A series of the blends of tetrafunctional epoxy resins with polycarbonate (PC) or tetramethyl polycarbonate (TMPC) was prepared to investigate thermal stability and compatibility. The T-g behavior as a function of isothermal curing time was observed. The thermal stability of epoxy and epoxy/thermoplastics blends was estimated using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) investigation demonstrated the occurrence of thermal degradation and hydrolysis in epoxy and epoxy/PC blends during the curing process. The thermal degradation of cured epoxy was induced with etherification, a sort of side reaction, and resulted in the chain scission of networks leading to the decrease of T-g. The variance of thermal stability with a combination of two components in these blends resulted from the difference of the compatibility due to chemical structure similarity. The compatibility was corroborated with the morphology by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). (C) 1996 John Wiley & Sons. [References: 16]