Curing and Morphology of BPA Epoxy Resin/LC Epoxy Resin PEPEB Composites.

Liquid crystalline epoxy resin (LC epoxy resin) - p-phenylene di{4-[2-(2,3-epoxypropyl)ethoxy]benzoate} (PEPEB) was synthesized. The mixture of PEPEB with bisphenol-A epoxy resin (BPAER) was cured with a curing agent 4,4-diamino-diphenylmethane (DDM). The curing process and thermal behavior of this system were investigated by differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and torsional braid analysis (TBA). The morphological structure was measured by polarizing optical microscope (POM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results show that the initial curing temperature Ticu (gel point) of this system is 68.1°C, curing peak temperature Tpcu is 102.5°C, and the disposal temperature Tfcu is 177.6°C. LC structure was fixed in the cured epoxy resin system. The curing kinetics was investigated by dynamic DSC. Results showed that the curing reaction activation energy of BEPEB/BPAER/DDM system is 22.413 kJ/mol. The impact strength is increased 2.3 times, and temperature of mechanical loss peak is increased to 23°C than the common bisphenol-A epoxy resin, when the weight ratio of BEPEB with BPAER is 6 100. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]