Chemical modification of dicyclopentadiene-based epoxy resins to improve compatibility and thermal properties

A. series of siloxane-containing epoxy resins was obtained by curing dicycl opentadiene-containing epoxy DG with the silicon-containing curing agents T S, DS, and AS. Curing behavior was studied using DSC, and the activation en ergies of the DG curing reaction with curing agents TA, DS, and AS were fou nd to be 59, 80, and 157 KJ/mol. Meanwhile, the curing reaction of DG with diamines was found to be a first-order reaction using Arrhenius plots. In a ddition, thermal stability and the weight loss behavior of the cured polyme rs were studied via TGA. The silicon-containing resins displayed higher wei ght loss temperatures and higher char yields than the silicon-free resin. T he activation energies of degradation ranged from 108 to 206 KJ/mol. The mo rphology of the cured pieces were investigated using SEM. The DG/TS and DG/ DS are more compatible between the epoxy and the curing agents than DG/AS. The limited oxygen index (LOI) values of 31 to 34 for the DG-based resin co nfirmed the effectiveness of silicon-containing epoxy resins as flame retar dants. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.