Effect of Stoichiometry and Epoxy Molecular Mass on Wettability and Interfacial Microstructures of Amine-Cured Epoxies

摘要

Understanding the relationships between network structure and surface and interface properties of epoxy resins is a subject of great interest in many applications including adhesives, coatings and fiber-reinforced composites. However, this subject has not been fully investigated partly because of the spatial resolution limitation of traditional surface analytical techniques. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is increasingly used for studying sub-micrometer features of polymer surfaces and interfaces. In this study, the influence of epoxy equivalent mass and epoxy/amine stoichiometry on surface and interface microstructures and wetting properties of aminecured epoxy is investigated using AFM and contact angle measurements.