Aging and Thermal Studies on Epoxy Resin Modified by Epoxidized Novolacs

Epoxy resins are thermosetting polymers widely used for polymer composites, adhesives, high performance coatings, potting and encapsulation, and numerous other applications. These resins have excellent mechanical and electrical properties, low cure shrinkage, and good adhesion to most substrates. This study is an attempt to improve the thermal and aging characteristics of epoxy resin by blending with other multifunctional epoxies such as EPN and ECN. Bis-phenol A epoxy resins containing 2.5 to 20 wt% of epoxy novolac were cured in the presence of a polyamide hardener and tested for thermal and mechanical properties, hardness, water absorption, etc. Blends containing 10 to 15 wt% of epoxy novolac show substantial improvement in properties such as tensile strength, elongation, and energy absorbed to break. The novolac derived from p-cresol was better than that based on phenol in enhancing the properties. TGA, DSC, and DMA were employed for studying the thermal properties of the modified resin. The study reveals that modification using epoxy phenol and p-cresol novolac resins (EPN and ECN, respectively) improves the aging characteristics of the epoxy resin in addition to overall improvement of the mechanical properties.