Date Awarded

1994

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Department

Applied Science

Advisor

R A Orwoll

Abstract

Due to the high crosslink density of cured epoxy resins they generally lack damage tolerance. A significant amount of research has been expended to improve the toughness of epoxies. Research into the area of thermoplastic epoxy modifiers has begun to overcome some of the limitations of early methods of epoxy toughening (i.e. lower modulus and thermal stability).;This study examines the physical and mechanical properties of random poly(arylene ether-co-imidazole) (PAE-co-Is) and the characterization of epoxies modified with poly(arylene ether-co-imidazole)s.;Poly(arylene ether-co-imidazole)s exhibited the highest solubility in N,N,N{dollar}\rm\sp\prime,N\sp\prime,{dollar}-tetraglycidyl- 4,4{dollar}\sp\prime{dollar} diaminodiphenyl methane (TGMDA) based resins. The high molecular weight polymers caused significant decreases in melt flow behavior of the modified systems. Modification of TGMDA resins with PAE-co-Is significantly decreased the tetrahydrofuran sensitivity of the cured system and did not significantly affect the moisture absorption properties. One system modified with 10% w/w polymer exhibited increases in fracture toughness 1.7 times that of the unmodified system.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-aebd-6g98

Rights

© The Author

Download

Share Feedback

Share

COinS