The effect of epoxy resin to reduce the compression set of polysulfide sealant

In this article, modified polysulfide sealants with lower compression set were prepared by a simple method of introducing the diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A resin (DGEBA epoxy resin) into sealants. The investigation on reactivity analysis and gel faction test verified that the incorporation of epoxy resin in sealants was just a blending process rather than copolyaddition with polysulfide resin. Stress–strain behavior during compression revealed that the epoxy resin could reduce the compression stress when the sealants were loaded to a certain strain, which effectively lessened crosslink breakages and benefited to compression resistance. Also the rigid phenyl structure in epoxy resin may retard incidental slide between polysulfide chains and prevent interchange reactions between disulfide linkages. The incorporation of 2 phr epoxy resin distinctly reduced compression set of polysulfide sealant from 28.3% to 11.2% after compressed 25% at 23°C for 1 day. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012