Premium
Chemical toughening of epoxies. II. Mechanical, thermal, and microscopic studies of epoxies toughened with hydroxyl‐terminated poly(butadiene‐co‐acrylonitrile)
Author(s) -
Sankaran S.,
Chanda Manas
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.1990.070390802
Subject(s) - materials science , natural rubber , composite material , diglycidyl ether , epoxy , ultimate tensile strength , toughness , acrylonitrile , dynamic mechanical analysis , glass transition , thermal decomposition , izod impact strength test , nitrile rubber , copolymer , polymer , bisphenol a , chemistry , organic chemistry
Diglycidyl ether–bisphenol‐A‐based epoxies toughened with various levels (0–12%) of chemically reacted liquid rubber, hydroxyl‐terminated poly(butadiene‐co‐acrylonitrile) (HTBN) were studied for some of the mechanical and thermal properties. Although the ultimate tensile strength showed a continuous decrease with increasing rubber content, the toughness as measured by the area under the stress‐vs.‐strain curve and flexural strength reach a maximum around an optimum rubber concentration of 3% before decreasing. Tensile modulus was found to increase for concentrations below 6%. The glass transition temperature T g as measured by DTA showed no variation for the toughened formulations. The TGA showed no variations in the pattern of decomposition. The weight losses for the toughened epoxies at elevated temperatures compare well with that of the neat epoxy. Scanning electron microscopy revealed the presence of a dual phase morphology with the spherical rubber particles precipitating out in the cured resin with diameter varying between 0.33 and 6.3 μm. In contrast, a physically blended rubber–epoxy showed much less effect towards toughening with the precipitated rubber particles of much bigger diameter (0.6–21.3 μm).