Novel Thermosets from the Cationic Copolymerization of Modified Linseed Oils and Dicyclopentadiene

A series of soft to tough copolymers have been prepared by the cationic copolymerization of the modified linseed oils Dilulin or ML189 with DCPD. Soxhlet extraction and solid-state C-13 NMR spectra indicate that the bulk copolymers consist of a cross-linked oil/DCPD network interpenetrated with certain amounts of soluble components. The T(g)s of the resulting Dil/DCPD and ML189/DCPD copolymers are in the range 15-83 and 8-77 degrees C, respectively, and increase linearly with the increase of the DCPD amount. The room-temperature storage moduli range from 4.43 x 10(6) to 1.52 x 10(9) Pa for the Dil/DCPD copolymers and from 3.72 x 10(6) to 1.44 x 10(9) Pa for the ML189/DCPD copolymers.