Summary: Novel multifunctional formaldehyde resins bearing diaminodiphenylmethane groups are synthesized by the polymerization of a mixture of diaminodiphenylmethane (DDM), o‐cresol (o‐Cz), and cyclohexanone (CHx) with formaldehyde (FA) (at a molar ratio of monomers/formaldehyde, 1/1), in the presence of acid catalyst (HCl). The obtained resins are epoxidated with a large excess of epichlorohydrin and transformed into multifunctional epoxy resins. The multifunctional epoxy maleimide resins are obtained by reaction of the epoxy resins with carboxy phenyl maleimide in the presence of triethylamine as a catalyst. The resultant resins are characterized by IR and NMR spectroscopy, elemental, and thermal analysis. The curing and thermal behavior of these epoxy maleimide resin/DDM systems are investigated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetry (TG) techniques. The activation energies of the curing reactions are situated in the range of 53–90 kJ · mol?1. The cured products have good thermal properties, and activation energies of degradation reactions have values between 42–74 kJ · mol?1.
The curing reaction of multifunctional epoxy maleimide resins with DDM.
