Mechanical properties of cyanate ester composites modified by ESi

In this study, bisphenol A dicyanate ester (BCE) was modified with epoxy group silane (ESi) to improve the impact strength of neat resin specimens. The ESi/BCE composites were shown to have better impact strength and flexural strength properties than un-modified samples. When the value of Tg was not significantly changed, in comparison to the neat BCE, the impact and flexural strength of modified resins increased by 43.5 and 31.7 %, respectively. ESi reinforced the toughness of the BCE, which was confirmed by scanning electronic microscopy. Mechanical properties were improved primarily due to epoxy group reactions in ESi and cyanate groups in BCE, confirmed by FTIR.