Title
Nanostructured Thermoset/Thermoset Blends Compatibilized with an Amphiphilic Block Copolymer
Date Issued
23 April 2019
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Rohde B.
Culp T.
Ilavsky J.
Krishnamoorti R.
Robertson M.
University Park
Publisher(s)
American Chemical Society
Abstract
Blends of thermoset polymers offer an avenue to combine the mechanical properties of complementary high glass transition temperature systems. An epoxy resin with high tensile strength and modulus, composed of the diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A cured with an anhydride, was combined with polydicyclopentadiene, cured via ring-opening metathesis polymerization, to improve the toughness. An amphiphilic block copolymer, poly(1,4-butadiene-b-ethylene oxide), where 1,4-polybutadiene has a strong affinity for polydicyclopentadiene and poly(ethylene oxide) has a strong affinity for the epoxy resin, was added to control phase separation and manipulate the morphology of the thermoset blend, analogous to compatibilization in thermoplastic blends. A systematic study of the influence of block copolymer loading and blend composition on the structural morphology was performed, using a combination of ultrasmall-angle X-ray scattering (USAXS), small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). As the block copolymer content was increased, the thermoset/thermoset blend morphology transitioned from a phase-separated surface fractal type morphology to finer dispersed spherical domains, until a critical particle size was reached at which blend mechanical properties were optimum. The resultant mechanical properties for select compatibilized blends showed a strong positive influence of the morphology on the fracture properties while maintaining the well-behaved tensile properties observed in the uncompatibilized system.
Start page
3104
End page
3114
Volume
52
Issue
8
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ingeniería química Ciencia de los polímeros
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85064812323
Source
Macromolecules
ISSN of the container
00249297
Sponsor(s)
This research used resources of the Advanced Photon Source (APS), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC02-06CH11357. Data were collected on the USAXS instrument located at 9ID beamline of the APS, operated by X-ray Science Division (XSD). The authors appreciate the contribution of Ross Andrews for assistance with USAXS data acquisition and analysis methods, and thank Katrina I. S. Mongcopa and Wenyue Ding for assistance with USAXS experiments. M.L.R. and B.J.R. gratefully acknowledge financial support from the National Science Foundation (Awards CMMI-1334838 and DMR-1611376) and the Norman Hackerman Advanced Research Program (Award #003652-0022-2013). B.J.R. acknowledges support through the National Science Foundation GK-12 Program at the University of Houston (Award DGE- 0840889). T.C. and E.D.G. acknowledge support from the National Science Foundation (Award #1609417).
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus