Physical and Mechanical Interfacial Properties of Epoxy Copolymers Initiated by Latent Thermal Catalysts

Summary: The epoxy copolymers containing sulfone groups, diglycidyl ether of bisphenol‐A – Bisphenol‐S (DGEBA‐S) were synthesized by a hot‐melt method. The thermal properties of the epoxy systems initiated by two cationic latent catalysts, i.e., N ‐benzylpyrazinium hexafluoroantimonate (BPH) and N ‐benzylquinoxalinium hexafluoroantimonate (BQH), were investigated by using a dynamic DSC, DMA, and TGA. The mechanical properties were measured by single‐edge‐notched (SEN) beam fracture toughness tests. As a result, the thermal stability and mechanical interfacial properties of the DGEBA‐S/catalyst system were found to be higher than those of the DGEBA/catalyst. This was probably due to the fact that the introduction of sulfone groups with a polar nature to the main chain of the epoxy resins led to an improvement of thermal stability and toughness of the cured epoxy copolymers.Conversion of the epoxy/catalyst systems as a function of curing temperature.