Epoxy
resins have been widely applied in various industrial fields,
because of their high performances. However, previous studies mainly
focused on low and medium temperatures; thus, curing behavior at high
temperatures was less documented, which largely limits the deep understanding
of epoxy resin formation and their applications in wider conditions.
In this work, a novel curing agent, 4,4′-((methylenebis(4,1-phenylene))bis(azanediyl))bis(4-(furan-2-yl)butan-2-one)
(AFPA), has been designed and synthesized via a one-pot method. The
gelation time of epoxy system with AFPA underwater at 120 and 150
°C reaches 20 and 8 h, respectively. The activation energy of
the system is calculated to be as high as 33.88 kJ mol–1, which accounts for the very long gelation time. Differential scanning
calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis results have shown that
the glass-transition temperature of the epoxy resin is 123 °C,
and the 5 wt % mass-loss temperature is 233 °C. Mechanical
property tests have shown that the cured epoxy resin has good compressive
strength, reaching 122 MPa at 30 °C and 41 MPa, even at 120 °C.
A plugging experiment is designed and performed, and the results reveal
that such epoxy system can easily pass through simulated formation
rock fractures and cure in the presence of water at 120 °C to
plug the fractures. We believe the findings in this work could provide
an alternative way to develop systems with long curing times. Given
the very long gelation time at high temperatures underwater and the
good mechanical properties, such epoxy resin may find applications
in water shut-off in the upstream of oil and gas industry, where water
management underground is highly desired.