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The effect of adding a multiarm star poly(styrene)-b-poly(ε-caprolactone) polymer on the cationic thermal and photoinitiated curing of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A was studied. This star-polymer decelerated the thermal curing of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A and modified the final structure of the epoxy matrix. The photocuring was influenced significantly by the addition of the multiarm star. When the proportion of this modifier added was 5%, much more time was necessary for complete photocuring (160 min at 40ºC). In the presence of 10% of modifier, the degree of photocuring reached was very low (0.196 at 120°C). A subsequent thermal post-curing was necessary to cure completely the system. During photocuring in presence of poly(styrene)-b-poly(ε-caprolactone), the formation of dormant species, which are reactivated when the temperature increases, takes places. The kinetics of the thermal curing and the photocuring was analyzed using an isoconversional method due to the complexity of the reactive process. Applying this method, it has been confirmed the dependence of activation energy on the degree of conversion. The fracture morphology analyzed by scanning electron microscopy exhibited a second phase originated during photocuring by the presence of the modifier.

In this paper, polysulfide-based elastomers were successfully prepared through a simple one-pot thiol-ene click reaction of the liquid polysulfide oligomer with bisphenol-A diacrylate resin. Real-time Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis showed that the molecular weight of the liquid polysulfide oligomer had no effect on mercaptan functional group conversion. The obtained elastomers continued to keep low temperature flexibility of polysulfide except Elastomer-LP3, which was due to higher content of bisphenol-A structure. All the samples had a tensile strength of over 0.7 MPa, which was comparable to that of polysulfide polymer cured by metal oxide. Moreover, the samples exhibited higher thermal stability than metal oxide cured polysulfide. This vulcanization methodology will provide a fast, efficient, and environmentally friendly approach (without metal oxides and plasticizers) for preparing polysulfide elastomers.

In this work, an alternative type of carbon-based nanofiller, graphite nanoplatelets (GNPs) with comparable properties, easier and lower-cost production, were used to improve the thermal conductivity of an epoxy. By adding 12 wt% GNPs or 71.7 wt% silicon carbide microparticles (micro-SiCs) to epoxy, the thermal conductivity reached maxima that were respectively 6.3 and 20.7 times that of the epoxy alone. To further improve the thermal conductivity a mixture of the two fillers was utilized. The utilized GNPs are characterized by two-dimensional (2-D) structure with high aspect ratio (~ 447), which enables GNPs effectively act as heat conductive bridges among 3-D micro-SiCs, thus contributes considerably to the formation of a more efficient 3-D percolating network for heat flow, resulting in higher thermal conductivity with relatively lower filler contents which is important for decreasing the density, viscosity and improving the processability of composites. A thermal conductivity, 26.1 times that of epoxy, was obtained with 7 wt% GNPs + 53 wt% micro-SiCs, thus not only break the bottleneck of further improving the thermal conductivity of epoxy composites but also broaden the applications of GNPs.

Mixtures of diglycidylether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) resin and different ratios of aliphatic-aromatic hyperbranched polyester (HBP) were cured by a latent curing agent, adipic dihydrazide (AH). The HBPs prepared have hydroxyl groups or 10-undecenoyl or allyl groups as chain ends. The curing mixtures were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) to study the curing process and to evaluate the kinetic parameters of the different formulations. These studies suggest that HBPs decrease the curing rate of epoxy/AH in the case of vinyl terminated HPB, whereas OH terminated HBP accelerates the first stages and delays the lasts. The thermosets obtained showed an improvement in microhardness and impact strength without any reduction of the T_g and thermal parameters. Microparticle phase separation was observed with the undecenoyl HBP derivatives or when a 10% of allyl HBP derivative was in the formulation.

Conductive polymer composites have wide ranging applications, but when they are produced by conventional melt blending, high conductive filler loadings are normally required, hindering their processability and reducing mechanical properties. In this study, two types of polymer-polymer composites were studied: i) microfibrillar composites (MFC) of polypropylene (PP) and 5 wt% carbon nanotube (CNT) loaded poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) as reinforcement, and ii) maleic anhydride-grafted polypropylene (PP-g-MA) compatibilizer, loaded with 5 wt% CNTs introduced into an MFC of PP and poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) in concentrations of 5 and 10 wt%. For the compatibilized composite type, PP and PET were melt-blended, cold-drawn and pelletized, followed by dry-mixing with PP-g-MA/CNT, re-extrusion at 200°C, and cold-drawing. The drawn blends produced were compression moulded to produce sheets with MFC structure. Using scanning electron microscopy, CNTs coated with PP-g-MA could be observed at the interface between PP matrix and PET microfibrils in the compatibilized blends. The volume resistivities tested by four-point test method were: 2.87•108 and 9.93•107 Ω•cm for the 66.5/28.5/5 and 63/27/10 (by wt%) PP/PET/(PP-g-MA/CNT) blends, corresponding to total CNT loadings (in the composites) of 0.07 vol% (0.24 wt%) and 0.14 vol% (0.46 wt%), respectively. For the non-compatibilized MFC types based on PP/(PBT/CNT) with higher and lower melt flow grades of PP, the resistivities of 70/(95/5) blends were 1.9•106 and 1.5•107 Ω•cm, respectively, corresponding to a total filler loading (in the composite) of 0.44 vol% (1.5 wt%) in both MFCs.

4 wt% multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were incorporated into a miscible blend of polyphenylenether/polystyrene (PPE/PS) on a twin-screw extruder at a screw speed of 600 rpm. The masterbatch obtained was diluted at 400 and 600 rpm to obtain lower MWCNT loadings in PPE/PS. Electron microscopy & optical microscopy images show very good MWCNT dispersion even at high filler loadings of 4 wt%, but slightly larger agglomerate size fractions are observable at higher screw speeds. While MWCNT addition enhanced the thermal stability of PPE/PS, a small change in glass transition was observed on the composites at different filler concentrations compared to PPE/PS. The specific heat capacity at glass transition decreases considerably until 2 wt% MWCNT and levels down thereafter for both processing conditions pointing to enhanced filler-matrix interaction at lower loadings. Storage modulus of the nanocomposites was enhanced significantly on MWCNT incorporation with reinforcing effect dropping considerably as a function of temperature, especially at lower filler contents. The modulus and the tensile strength of PPE/PS were only marginally enhanced in spite of excellent MWCNT dispersion in the matrix. Electrical percolation occurs at 0.4 wt% MWCNT content, and the electrical conductivity of 0.5 wt% MWCNT reinforced PPE/PS was close to 12 orders in magnitude higher compared to PPE/PS.

Cross-linked poly(ether-urethane)s were prepared by Diels-Alder (DA) reaction of the furan-containing poly(ether-urethane) to bismaleimides and showed thermal reversibility evidenced by differential scanning calorimetry and attenuated total reflectance in conjunction with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). The furan-containing poly(ether-urethane)s were synthesized by the polyaddition reaction of 1,6-hexamethylene diisocyanate (HMDI) or 4,4'- dibenzyl diisocyanate (DBDI) to poly(tetramethylene ether) glycol (PTMEG having M_n = 250, 650, 1000, 1500 and 2000) and 2-[N,N-bis(2-methyl-2-hydroxyethyl)amino]furfuryl as chain extender by the solution prepolymer method. The molar ratio of isocyanate: PTMEG:chain extender varied from 2:1:1 to 4:1:3, which produces a molar concentration of furyl group ranging between 3.65•10^–4 and 1.25•10^–3 mol/g.