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Mechanical properties of epoxy resin/hydroxyl‐terminated polyester blends: effect of two‐phase structure
Author(s) -
Liu Yimin,
Zhang Weidong,
Zhou Hongwei
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
polymer international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.592
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1097-0126
pISSN - 0959-8103
DOI - 10.1002/pi.1862
Subject(s) - epoxy , polyester , gelcoat , toughness , materials science , phase (matter) , scanning electron microscope , composite material , izod impact strength test , polymer chemistry , chemistry , organic chemistry , ultimate tensile strength
In this paper, the effect of two‐phase structure on the mechanism of rubber‐toughening of epoxy resins was studied. Three types of hydroxyl‐terminated polyesters with different molecular weights were synthesized in order to modify epoxy resins to obtain single‐phase (P‐1), critical phase separation (P‐2) and two‐phase (P‐3) structures. The results of dynamical mechanical analysis and scanning electron microscopy distinguished the dissolved and phase‐separated polyesters in the epoxy matrix. The P‐1 system showed the highest dissolved content of polyester in the epoxy matrix, while the P‐3 system exhibited the lowest content. Both dissolved and phase‐separated polyesters proved to be capable of increasing the toughness of modified epoxy resins. The phase‐separated polyester was found to contribute much more to the improvement of toughness. Copyright © 2005 Society of Chemical Industry