To investigate the role of position of oxazine ring in the benzoxazine backbone on their ring-opening polymerization (ROP) and thermal stability of resulting polybenzoxazine, we have synthesized difunctional monomers solely containing benzoxazine moieties (BZ2) with attached oxazine ring at the para-, meta-, and ortho-position. The ROP was examined by DSC analysis, which revealed a reduction in curing temperature in the order of meta (225°C) < ortho (239°C) < para (251°C). The differences in structural and geometrical parameters were investigated by NMR ( 1 H, 13 C, 1 H− 1 H NOESY) and X-ray crystallography analysis. The electronic effects and the intramolecular interaction between oxazine ring and aromatic hydrogen were higher when the attached oxazine ring was at the meta-position. The differences in their positioning also changed their ROP mechanism, an unusual intramolecular polymerization was observed in meta, while in ortho and para the polymerization proceeded in a regular manner. A curing mechanism responsible for lower curing temperature and faster ROP in meta has been proposed, which involves an intramolecular electrophilic substitution of iminium ion, resulting in aza-cyclic rings along with classical phenolic Mannich bridges in the networked structure. The cured resin showed a high T g and in the order of para (291°C) > meta (270°C) > ortho (266°C). Even though meta-PBZ2 displayed an earlier degradation with T d10 of 358°C as compared to para and ortho (T d10 : 373°C) due to aza-cyclic rings, the main backbone degradation was observed to be coinciding in all PBZ2s at 417°C with a char yield of 57% at 600°C. Thus, changing position of oxazine ring to "meta" in the backbone is a beneficial strategy to have a low curing benzoxazine without sacrificing the thermal stability of resulting polybenzoxazine.
■ INTRODUCTIONPolybenzoxazines, a relatively new phenolic-type thermosetting resin, in which the cross-linked network is constructed by linking phenolic moiety with Mannich bridges (−CH 2 −NR− CH 2 −). These resins has gained enormous interest in researchers from both academia and industry due to their outstanding properties including near zero volumetric shrinkage upon curing, minimal water absorption, low flammability, high glass transition temperature usually much higher than its curing temperature, fast physical and mechanical property buildup even at low conversion, etc. These unique properties are due to the existence of inter/intra molecular hydrogen bonding in the cross-linked network, specifically the very stable six-membered intramolecular OH---N hydrogen bonding. Moreover, the simplicity in benzoxazine monomer synthesis make them more attractive, which involves Mannich condensation of phenol, primary amine, and formaldehyde. 1−5 The tremendous molecular design flexibility offers myriad of modification in to the structure simply by changing suitably functionalized phenol/amines to develop polybenzoxazines with desired properties for particular applications. 6−13 Unlike traditional phenolics, the ...