Improvement of surface and moisture resistance of epoxy resins with fluorinated glycidyl ether

Laurylfluoro glycidyl ether (FGE) was synthesized by laurylfluoro‐1‐pentanol with epichlorohydrin, and confirmed by FTIR and ¹³C‐NMR. The surface properties, moisture absorption, and mechanical properties of the epoxy resins modified by different content of laurylfluoro glycidyl ether acted as mono functional thinner were investigated by X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), universal testing machine (UTM), dynamic mechanical thermal analyzer (DMTA), etc. The fluorine content at the surface of the modified resins were enriched greatly with the increase of the content of laurylfluoro glycidyl ether, and the hydrophobic property of the resins surface increased. When the FGE content was 10%, the fluorine content at the surface of the modified epoxy resin reached to 66% and the water contact angle was 102°. The equilibrium moisture content of the resin dropped by 30% when the content of FGE was 5%. The mechanical properties of the epoxy resins modified by FGE were improved while the thermal mechanical properties changed little at low content of FGE (less than 3%). Further increase of FGE content in the epoxy resins may result in decreases of the mechanical and thermal mechanical properties of the resins. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009