Effects of Polyol Molecular Weight on Properties of Benzoxazine-Urethane Polymer Alloys

Recently, a new thermoset resin namely benzoxazine (BA) resin has been developed. The polymer possesses several outstanding properties, such as, ease of synthesis, low viscosity, near-zero shrinkage, lack of by-product upon curing, high thermal stability, and high mechanical property. Moreover, the benzoxazine resins can be alloyed with various types of resins because of the various function groups in their structure. In this work, urethane elastomer (PU) is used to enhance toughness of the polybenzoxazine. The effects of polyol molecular weights on the properties of BA: PU polymer alloys are investigated. The experiment reveals that the similar curing peaks of the matrices at various polyol molecular weights, with the same urethane mass fraction, in the resin mixtures are obtained. The glass transition temperature increases from 160 degrees C of polybenzoxazine to 240-245 degrees C in the 70:30 BA:PU system. In addition, the char yield increases when the higher molecular weight of polyol is added. The flexural modulus of polybenzoxazine decreases from 6.2 GPa to be in the range of 2.2-2.8 GPa when 30 wt% of PU is presented in the alloys. Furthermore, the synergism with ultimate flexural strength is observed in the 90:10 BA:PU alloy for all molecular weights of the polyol used. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 48:2238-2246, 2008. (C) 2008 Society of Plastics Engineers