Synthesis, properties and cure chemistry of a novel room-temperature liquid cyanate ester

A novel dicyanate ester monomer of 2,2,-bis(4-cyanatophenyl)butane (BBCY) that is liquid with low viscosity (similar to 450 mPa.s) at ambient temperature has been successfully synthesized and fully characterized by FT-IR, (HNMR)-H-1 and (CNMR)-C-13. The cure chemistry of BBCY resin was determined by non-isothermal DSC and the curing kinetic equations were established by n-order model and Sestak-Berggren (SB) model for neat BBCY (without catalyst) as well as catalyzed BBCY, respectively. Moreover, the calculations based on above models had a great coherence with the experimental data. On the other hand, the physical properties of polycyanurate formed by cyclotrimerization of the cyanate groups under different curing conditions were evaluated and it's found that the catalyst had a significant effect on properties of the cured resin. The cured resin with catalyst resulted in depression of mechanical strength, thermal stability and glass transition temperature (T-g), increment of percentage of polar solvent absorption and dielectric constant in comparison with neat BBCY system. Additionally, the cured BBCY resin exhibited higher T-g, higher initial decomposition temperature and tensile strength, slightly lower shear strength and impact strength than bisphenol A dicyanate. These data suggest that BBCY resin does not only have a convenient processing widow as composite matrix, but also have excellent physical properties. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.