In order to develop the nanomaterials in the application for the flexible and strain-resilient electronics packaging, a suitable flexible polymer system needs to be determined first. The flexible epoxy requires that the glass transition temperature (Tg) of epoxy should be lower than room temperature. If the polymer chain between the functional groups is relatively long, the cross-linking density will be relatively low. In this paper, a series of the epoxy polymers, including Epon 828/D230, Epon 828-DER 732 (70:30 wt.)/D230, DER 732-Epon 828 (70:30 wt.)/D230, DER 732/D230, Epon 828/D400 and Epon 828/D2000, were successfully made. The Epon 828/D230 epoxy showed the highest Tg (95.9°C) due to the shortest chains of the Epon 828 and Jeffamine D230. As the carbon chain of the curing agent becomes longer, the Tgs are reduced to 57.5°C for Epon 828/D400 and -21.3°C for Epon 828/D2000. Simultaneously, for the same curing agent, DER 732 (longer chain)/D230 showed much lower Tg (-26.3°C) than Epon 828/D230 (95.9°C). In addition, the Tg of the Epon 828-DER 732/D230 appears a good linear relationship with the Epon 828 fraction. The Tg can be well tuned by tailoring the concentration, the composition of the epoxy resin and the curing agent.

Tuning of the glass transition temperature of epoxy polymer

249th National Meeting (2015)

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