The Green Preparation of High-performance Epoxy-based Glass Polymers

The stress relaxation behavior and re-forming temperature of the glass-like epoxy polymer can be achieved by changing the type and content of the catalyst. Recently, scientists at Washington State University in the United States used the hydroxylamine compound triethanolamine (TEOA) as a typical co-curing agent for the BPA epoxy-cyclic anhydride curing system to prepare a new epoxy-based glass polymer.

The hydroxyl groups and tertiary amine of TEOA catalyze the curing process, and the tertiary amine and the regenerated hydroxyls in the crosslinked network accelerate dynamic transesterification.

The resulting epoxy vitrimer exhibits a high glass transition temperature (~135 °C), excellent tensile strength (~94 MPa), and fast repairing rate (10 min at 190 °C). Recycling of the TEOA-mediated epoxy vitrimer and reuse of the recyclate are also studied. In an experiment, the vitrimer is ground into powder, and in another, it is degraded in an aqueous solution. The recyclates collected from both experiments are incorporated into the fresh resin, and the new vitrimer materials exhibited similar Tgs and moduli to that of original vitrimer samples.

This research realized the green preparation of high-performance epoxy-based glass polymers and further expanded the development of high-performance epoxy-based glass polymers. And it has be published in the recent "Macromolecules" magazine.

References: Cheng Hao, Tuan Liu*, Shuai Zhang, Wangcheng Liu, Yingfa Shan, Jinwen Zhang*, Triethanolamine-Mediated Covalent Adaptable Epoxy Network: Excellent Mechanical Properties, Fast Repairing, and Easy Recycling, Macromolecules, 2020, 53, 3110– 3118, DOI: 10.1021/acs.macromol.9b02243