High performance toughened cyanate ester resin with low injection temperature for RTM process

A high-performance modified cyanate resin system with low injection temperature for fabricating advanced composites via resin transfer molding (RTM) was developed, which was made of bisphenol A dicyanate ester (BADCy) and diallyl phthalate (DAP). The processing characteristics, mechanical, and thermal properties of the resin were studied, and the effect of the content of DAP on the processing and performance parameters was discussed. The results show that the processing properties of the modified cyanate system are dependent on the content of DAP. All the formulations studied in this paper have good processing characteristics; their injection temperatures are between 30 and 40 degrees C and the pot life is about 20 hr at 50 degrees C. The cured resins exhibited good thermal stability, excellent toughness, and good hot-wet resistance, suggesting that the toughened cyanate resin is a potential high-performance RTM matrix for advanced composites. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.