Curing of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A epoxy resin using a poly(aryl ether ketone) bearing pendant carboxyl groups as macromolecular curing agent

BACKGROUND: Reactive thermoplastics have received increasing attention in the field of epoxy resin toughening. This paper presents the first report of using a novel polyaryletherketone bearing one pendant carboxyl group per repeat unit to cure the diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A epoxy resin (DGEBA). The curing reactions of DGEBA/PEK-L mixtures of various molar ratios and with different catalysts were investigated by means of dynamic differential scanning calorimetry and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy methods. RESULTS: FTIR results for the DGEBA/PEK-L system before curing and after curing at 135 degrees C for different times demonstrated that the carboxyl groups of PEK-L were indeed involved in the curing reaction to form a crosslinked network, as evidenced by the marked decreased peak intensities of the carboxyl group at 1705 cm(-1) and the epoxy group at 915 cm(-1) as well as the newly emerged strong absorptions of ester bonds at 1721 cm(-1) and hydroxyl groups at 3447 cm(-1). Curing kinetic analysis showed that the value of the activation energy (E-a) was the highest at the beginning of curing, followed by a decrease with increasing conversion (alpha), which was attributed to the autocatalytic effect of hydroxyls generated in the curing reaction. CONCLUSION: The pendant carboxyl groups in PEK-L can react with epoxy groups of DGEBA during thermal curing, and covalently participate in the crosslinking network. PEK-L is thus expected to significantly improve the fracture toughness of DGEBA epoxy resin. (C) 2009 Society of Chemical Industry