Hydrothermal ageing of radiation cured epoxy resin-polyether sulfone blends as matrices for structural composites

Accelerated ageing due to moisture absorption of thermally cured epoxy resin/polyethersulphone blends. Thermal, mechanical and morphological behaviour

“…In our previous work the hydrothermal ageing of epoxy based systems cured by means of low temperature ionizing radiation process has been studied [15]. The results indicated that the formation of clusters at different cross-linking densities, typical of low temperature radiation curing process, specifically characterized the ageing response of the material, which gave rise to a "homogenization" of the structure, with degradation and plasticization phenomena that caused significant modification of both thermal and mechanical properties.…”

“…It is reasonable that the morphology of the epoxyethermoplastic system can markedly affect the water absorption behaviour of the material because the distribution of the two phases is involved in the waterepolymeric matrix interactions and in turn the morphology can be modified by absorbed water [15]. The modification of the morphology by moisture absorption is attributable to the increase of the mobility, due to plasticization/degradation, which allows the morphology to develop toward the equilibrium state, consisting of two separated phases in the corresponding phase diagram [13].…”

Radiation Curing of Thermosetting-Thermoplastic Blends as Matrices for Structural Carbon Fibre Composites

“…On the contrary a marked toughness increase is observed. In table 2 the results of the fracture toughness test in terms of the critical intensity factor K IC (Broeck, 1986;ASTM D 695-02a., 2002), for both DGEBF neat resin and DGEBF/PES blends, are reported (Alessi et al 2010). Passing from neat epoxy resin systems to blends, a general K IC increase is observed.…”

“…As discussed in the introduction the toughness is strongly related to the blend morphology. In Fig 6 the SEM micrographs of the toughened materials, on fractured surfaces of the tested specimens (table 2), are shown (Alessi et al, 2010). It can be observed that in both cases a cocontinuous morphology is obtained, where two phases, one epoxy-rich and the second one PES-rich, are interconnected each other.…”

A study on glass fiber reinforced composites from 2,3-epoxypropyl-3-(2-furyl) acrylate and methyl methacrylate

“…With the addition of o-cresol groups to the backbone of epoxy resins, the improved resins are considered worthy of further study in terms of their good thermal stability, electrical properties, chemical resistance, mechanical properties, and modification [6]. Several studies have been carried out on epoxy blends containing thermoplastics such as polycarbonate [7][8][9], poly(ether imide)s [10][11][12], poly(phenylene oxide) [13] and poly(ether sulfone) [14][15][16]. The polymer was functionalized with different reactive groups to improve its interfacial adhesion between the two phases.…”