It has been found that by the addition of low concentrations of an amphiphilic block copolymer to an epoxy resin, novel disordered morphologies can be formed and preserved through curing. This article will focus on characterizing the influence of the block copolymer and casting solvent on the templated morphology achieved in the thermoset sample. The ultimate goal of this work is to determine the parameters that would control the microphase morphology produced. Epoxy resins blended with a series of amphiphilic block copolymers based on hydrogenated polyisoprene (polyethylene-alt-propylene or PEP) and polyethylene oxide (PEO), specifically, were investigated. In this article, the cure-induced order-order phase transition from the spherical to wormlike micelle morphology will also be discussed. It is proposed that the formation of the wormlike micelle structure from the spherical micelle structure is similar to the phase transition behavior that occurs in dilute block copolymer solutions as a function of the influence of the solvent on micelle morphology.

Microdeformation behavior in nanostructured block copolymer‐toughened epoxy resins, or templated epoxy thermosets, was studied using an in situ tensile deformation technique performed directly in a transmission electron microscope. The observed microdeformation modes were found to correlate well with the macroscopic mechanical properties of the materials. In the order of decreasing macroscopic fracture toughness, the microdeformation modes were observed to change from large uniform plastic deformation over an extensive area, to localized plastic deformation bands, to little plastic deformation observed in the most brittle material. A similar trend was also observed when samples of the same material were tested at different temperatures, reflecting changes in the deformation mechanism as a function of temperature. Structural defects were observed in nanotoughening phases when plastic deformation was observed. The implication of the observed microdeformation modes to the macroscopic toughening mechanisms is discussed in the context of the micromorphology of the nanometer sized toughening phases and parameters of the epoxy matrix chemistry such as bromination, molecular weight, and interfacial miscibility. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 47: 393–406, 2009

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