In terms of engineering applications, tremendous effort has been focused on improving toughness of epoxy during past few decades. The most common approaches are the incorporation of dispersed toughener phases such as rubber, engineering thermoplastics as well as rigid particles in the cured epoxy matrix. Hyperbranched polymers hold considerable promise in this area, for both the neat resin and composite material, as has been reported in the patent and open literature. Our study is to investigate the possibility of achieving toughness and also maintaining or enhancing the general performance of epoxy through the dispersion of POSS modified hyperbranched epoxide within the polymer matrix. Syntheses of hyperbranched epoxy via A2+B3 approaches by proton transfer polymerization, as well as the preparation of POSS modified hyperbranched epoxide for toughening epoxy composite are described. The hyperbranched epoxide and monoamine POSS modified hyperbranched epoxide were characterized through FTIR, 1H NMR, and MALLS. The thermal behavior of the epoxy composites was examined with a combination of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to investigate the composite morphology, and fracture toughness was evaluated.

Structure-property relationships of polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) modified hyperbranched epoxide in epoxy composites

248th National Meeting (2014)

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