Phase separation and morphology development in a thermoplastic-modified toughened epoxy

Synthesis and characterization of bio-based epoxy blends from renewable resource based epoxidized soybean oil as reactive diluent

“…On the other hand, in case of blends with higher ESO contents phase inversion occurs and simply imparts plasticizing effect. In the range of high modifier concentration, an inverse morphology is predicted, so that the dispersed phase becomes continuous and the continuous one becomes dispersed [35] .…”

“…However, the resin modified with ESO form spherical domains of the oil (cavitation) dispersed uniformly within the epoxy phase which allows the shear yielding process throughout the matrix thereby contributing in enhancing the toughness of the system. The particle size distribution of cavities plays a vital role in toughening epoxy network [33,35] . Uniformity in size and distribution of the domains are responsible for toughening the matrix as reported by various authors [12,14] .…”

Synthesis and application of epoxy resins: A review

“…Thermoplasticmodified epoxy systems are usually prepared by polymerizationinduced phase separation of the thermoplastic modifier, which is initially miscible in the epoxy resin but separates into phases during polymerization. The final properties of the systems are determined by the resulting phase-separated morphology and effective improvement in toughness will be obtained only with a co-continuous phase or phase inversion structure [96][97][98].…”

The change in the environment of the immiscible block stabilizes an unexpected HPC phase in a cured block copolymer/epoxy blend

“…When phase separation (nanostructuration) takes place, thermodynamics predicts that a fraction of the reactive solvent enriched in monomers and short oligomers must segregate together with the immiscible block [25][26][27][28][29]. As polymerization continues in the phase rich in the immiscible block, the largest oligomers are no longer miscible and diffuse out of this phase.…”