Thermal properties and water sorption behaviors of epoxy and bismaleimide composites

In this work, we prepared epoxy/BMI composites by using NN'-bismaleimide-4,4'-diphenylmethane (BMI), epoxy resin (diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A (DGEBA)), and 4,4'-diamino diphenyl methane (DDM). The thermal properties and water sorption behaviors of the epoxy and BMI composites were investigated. For the epoxy/BMI composites, the glass transition and decomposition temperatures both increased with increasing BMI addition, which indicates the effect of BMI addition on improved thermal stability. The water sorption behaviors were gravimetrically measured as a function of humidity, temperature, and composition. The diffusion coefficient and water uptake decreased and the activation energy for water diffusion increased with increasing BMI content, indicating that the water sorption in epoxy resin, which causes reliability problems in electronic devices, can be diminished by BMI addition. The water sorption behaviors in the epoxy/BMI composites were interpreted in terns of their chemical and morphological structures.