The effect of brominated epoxy on epoxy/phenolic reactive blends

摘要

Innovative reactive blends containing epoxy and brominated epoxy (BE) incorporated with resole-type phenolic were studied with the aim to elucidate the curing kinetics and the final thermomechanical characteristics of this unique system. Curing kinetics was investigated by means of the activation energy determined using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC ) at various heating rates analyzed by the Arrhenius equation. Both DSC and Fourier transform infrared revealed that bromine elimination at elevated temperatures (above 220 degrees C) had lowered the activation energy in the case of BE containing phenolic blends. The thermomechanical properties showed that the addition of conventional epoxy to resole decreased its thermal properties and modulus compared to neat resole. Distinctively, BE/resole blends exhibited increased glass-transition temperature, compared to diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A/resole blends in combination with higher elongation and toughness compared to neat resole. It was concluded that BE/epoxy resin/phenolic reactive systems offer high T-g, mechanical properties and toughness and hence are applicable for structural adhesives and for matrices of polymer-fiber composites. (c) 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019, 136, 47172.