Tertiary‐amine‐free, non‐planar, sulfone‐containing, tetrafunctional epoxy and its application as a high temperature matrix

Non‐amine‐derived tetrafunctional epoxies have several advantages over the amine‐derived N , N , N ′, N ′‐tetraglycidyl‐4,4′‐diaminodiphenyl methane (TGDDM) in high temperature applications. Although two non‐amine‐derived tetrafunctional epoxies were developed in our laboratory, further improvements in toughness using less loading amount is still desirable. Thus, a tertiary‐amine‐free, non‐planar and triphenylmethane‐containing tetrafunctional epoxy (STFE) with a sulfone spacer was synthesized. When it was mixed with diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) and cured with 4,4′‐diaminodiphenylsulfone (DDS), both thermal and mechanical performances outperformed TGDDM. Moreover, STFE modified system shows the highest toughness (35.7 kJ m –2 ) among three amine‐free and triphenylmethane‐containing epoxies at merely 5 wt% loading. Molecular simulation and thermomechanical analysis results suggest that the improved mechanical properties could be related to the geometry of the molecule and larger free volume. Despite a marginal drop in T g , the thermal degradation temperature is better than that of TGDDM/DDS. In addition, the moisture resistance of STFE/DGEBA/DDS is much better than that of TGDDM/DDS. Thus, STFE modified DGEBA could be a potential replacement for TGDDM in some high temperature applications. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry