Polymer morphology, epoxy

Siebert and Riew (4) described the chemistry of the in situ particle formation. They proposed that the composition of the particle is a mixture of linear CTBN-epoxy copolymers and crosslinked epoxy resin. The polymer morphology of the CTBN toughened epoxy systems was investigated by Rowe (5) using transmission electron microscopy by carbon replication of fracture surfaces. Riew and Smith (6) supported the... 

Polymer Morphology and Failure Mechanisms. A failed tensile bar of unmodified piperidine-cured epoxy resin shows shear deformation before tensile failure when strained slowly (0.127 cm/sec). We could not produce stable crazes in specimens of unmodified epoxy resins. At all stress levels, temperatures, and conditions of annealing only fracture occurred after shear band formation. The failure to observe crazes in unmodified epoxy resins may be explained by a fast equilibrium condition which exists between crazing on loading and recovery on unloading. 

This chapter reports the results of the literature that concerns the photooxidation of polymer nanocomposites. The published studies concern various polymers (PP, epoxy, ethylene-propylene-diene monomer (EPDM), PS, and so on) and different nanofillers such as organomontmorillonite or layered double hydroxides (LDH) were investigated. It is worthy to note that a specific attention was given to the interactions with various kinds of stabilizers and their efficiency to protect the polymer. One of the main objectives was to understand the influence of the nanofiller on the oxidation mechanism of the polymer and on the ageing of the nanocomposite material. Depending on the types of nanocomposite that were studied, the influence of several parameters such as morphology, processing conditions, and nature of the nanofiller was examined. 

Libera [99] has presented an alternative for the study of polymer morphology avoiding the staining procedure as a way to induce amplitude contrast. EEe proposed the use of EELS to study different polymer systems to obtain several levels of resolution (related to the radiation sensitivity of the material) when studying interfaces, such as those in polystyrene-poly(2-vinyl pyridine) homopolymer blends, epoxy-alumina interfaces, and hydrated polymers. Polymers could be distinguished from each other on the basis of the energy-loss spectra in their low loss (valence) and core loss (elemental composition). 

Polymer Morphology. Most epoxy thermoplastics are amorphous, glassy polymers with glass transition temperatures (Tg) that range from about 25 °C to over 200 °C (5,5). As is the case with all thermoplastics, Tg in polymers 2, 3 and 5-7 are heavily... 

DMTA together with other techniques such as DSC have been used in morphological studies on a variety of polymers including epoxy-polyaniline resin [53], ethylene-propylene 5-ethylidene-2-norbornene terpolymer-polyaniline blends [54], Nylon 6-ethylene vinyl alcohol blends [55], polyoxymethylene [56], ethylene-propylene-... 

Due to the chemical structure, fimctionality and composition of their constituents, ordinary variations of the processing conditions as well as the quality of the raw materials have been observed to lead to changes of the fine structure which are often responsible of lower ageing resistence of the polymer. The data reported here correlate the morphology of some widely utilized epoxy matrices to the informations that can be obtained from the study of the sorption behaviours. 

When a polymer film is exposed to a gas or vapour at one side and to vacuum or low pressure at the other, the mechanism generally accepted for the penetrant transport is an activated solution-diffusion model. The gas dissolved in the film surface diffuses through the film by a series of activated steps and evaporates at the lower pressure side. It is clear that both solubility and diffusivity are involved and that the polymer molecular and morphological features will affect the penetrant transport behaviour. Some of the chemical and morphological modification that have been observed for some epoxy-water systems to induce changes of the solubility and diffusivity will be briefly reviewed. 

Water molecules combine the tendency to cluster, craze and plasticize the epoxy matrices with the characteristic of easily diffusion in the polymer1 10). The morphology of the thermoset may be adversaly influenced by the presence of the sorbed moisture. The diffusion of the water in glassy polymers able to link the penetrant molecules is, therefore, characterized by various mechanisms of sorption which may be isolated giving useful information on the polymer fine structure. 

Siloxane containing interpenetrating networks (IPN) have also been synthesized and some properties were reported 59,354 356>. However, they have not received much attention. Preparation and characterization of IPNs based on PDMS-polystyrene 354), PDMS-poly(methyl methacrylate) 354), polysiloxane-epoxy systems 355) and PDMS-polyurethane 356) were described. These materials all displayed two-phase morphologies, but only minor improvements were obtained over the physical and mechanical properties of the parent materials. This may be due to the difficulties encountered in controlling the structure and morphology of these IPN systems. Siloxane modified polyamide, polyester, polyolefin and various polyurethane based IPN materials are commercially available 59). Incorporation of siloxanes into these systems was reported to increase the hydrolytic stability, surface release, electrical properties of the base polymers and also to reduce the surface wear and friction due to the lubricating action of PDMS chains 59). 

Although a majority of these composite thermistors are based upon carbon black as the conductive filler, it is difficult to control in terms of particle size, distribution, and morphology. One alternative is to use transition metal oxides such as TiO, VO2, and V2O3 as the filler. An advantage of using a ceramic material is that it is possible to easily control critical parameters such as particle size and shape. Typical polymer matrix materials include poly(methyl methacrylate) PMMA, epoxy, silicone elastomer, polyurethane, polycarbonate, and polystyrene. 

Because the components must initially form miscible solutions or swollen networks a degree of affinity between the reacting components is needed. Therefore, most of the investigations into epoxy IPNs have involved the use of partially miscible components such as thermoplastic urethanes (TPU) with polystyrenes [57], acrylates [58-61] or esters which form loose hydrogen-bound mixtures during fabrication [62-71 ]. Epoxy has also been modified with polyetherketones [72],polyether sulfones [5] and even polyetherimides [66] to help improve fracture behavior. These systems, due to immiscibility, tend to be polymer blends with distinct macromolecular phase morphologies and not molecularly mixed compounds. 

Throughout the history of polymer science there have been efforts to improve (increase) the Tg to increase the useful operating temperature range of polymers. The preponderance of the literature has concentrated on mechanically blended polymeric systems with little component interaction on the molecular level. Where epoxy systems are concerned, the incorporation of additives into the systems results in many changes to the morphology and physical behavior of the material formed. 

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