Designing of epoxy resin systems for cryogenic use

The mechanical and thermal properties of several types of epoxy systems were designed based on the chemical structure, network structure and morphology aiming at cryogenic application. In this research di-epoxies or multifunctional epoxies were cured by several kinds of hardeners such as anhydride, amine or phenol and were blended with polycarbonate, carboxyl-terminated butadiene acrylonitrile copolymer or phenoxy. The mechanical properties and thermal properties of these cured epoxies were measured at room and liquid nitrogen temperature. It was found that the two-dimensional network structured linear polymer shows high performance even at cryogenic temperature. It was concluded that the controls of the structures are very important to optimize epoxy systems for cryogenic application. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.