Latent imidazole curing agents by microencapsulation with copolymers

The encapsulation of imidazoles was conducted to prepare the latent imidazole curing agents by using the copolymers as the wall materials. The latent imidazole curing agents are essential to manufacturing anisotropic conducting films (ACFs). The copolymers, which were used for the encapsulation, were the copolymers of methacrylic acid (MAA) and octadecyl methacrylate (ODMA). The method for encapsulation was the spray-drying method. The curing behaviors of the microcapsules to epoxy resin were investigated using a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). Using the encapsulated microcapsules, the curing reaction to epoxy resin was conducted at 150°C and 180°C, and the curing time was measured. The fabricated microcapsules using the copolymers showed an improved latent character compared with the previously reported results.