In this article, an amphiphilic oligomeric silane (OS) was synthesized as a coupling agent to improve the interface bonding between resin matrix and glass fiber. The effect of the OS coupling agent on the interface of glass fiber/epoxy resin was studied by contact angle measurement, gravimetric measurements of water sorption, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and conductive anodic filament (CAF) resistance test. With the addition of the OS to the composites, the contact angle between epoxy resin and glass fiber decrease notably. Normalized water sorption by gravimetric measurements showed that the interfacial debonding time of composites with the OS can be prolonged significantly. CAF tests were also consistent with the water sorption results, which suggest that the gravimetric measurement of water sorption is a cost-effective method to assess the CAF resistance of materials. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011.

Biobased cyanate ester (CE) nanocomposites have been prepared from renewable resource, epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) and in situ generated nano-silica via sol–gel process. The isothermal curing process was investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and rheometry. The results indicate that the incorporation of silica accelerates the reaction at the beginning stage of curing process but descends the final isothermal curing conversion. The morphological study of nanocomposites by scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscope suggests that the silica exists in the forms of both nanoparticles and silica networks, while the diameter of ESO-rich phase diminished with the increase of silica loading. In addition, the thermal–physical and mechanical properties were evaluated by dynamic mechanical analysis, thermogravimetric analysis, and tensile mechanical test. The biobased CE nanocomposites show effectively improved properties compared to the systems without nano-silica. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2011. © 2010 Society of Plastics Engineers.

Poly(ether sulfone) terminated with phenolic hydroxyl groups modified cyanate ester resin and epoxy resin cocuring blends were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, rheometry, and mechanical properties measurement. The results suggested that poly (ether sulfone) (PES) could accelerate the polycyclotrimerization reaction of cyanate ester and cocuring processes between cyanate ester and epoxy of modified blends because of the presence of phenolic hydroxyl groups at the end of the PES molecules. It was found that the evolution of the morphologies and complex viscosities of the modified blends sensitive to molecular weight and content of PES, the tensile strength and elongation at break of the modified blends were correlated with the morphologies of modified blends. Moreover, the evolution of complex viscosities of the modified blends also showed an exponential growth at the early stage of phase separation, which demonstrated experimentally that the coarsening processes of droplets of bisphenol-A dicyanate and diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A and the final morphologies obtained in the blends modified with PES were affected by viscoelastic behavior. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009

Liquid crystalline epoxy resin (LCE) modify cyanate ester/epoxy resin blend systems were studied by scanning electron microscope, polarizing optical microscope, thermogravimetric analyzer, differential scanning calorimetry, thermal mechanical analysis, and rheometers. With the addition of LCE resin, the blends showed both an enhanced curing rate and increased glass transition temperature of cured samples. The phase structures of the blends changed from homogenous to liquid crystalline phase when the content of LCE was increased. At the same time, the mechanical properties were also improved and thermal expansion coefficients were lowed down. The thermal degradation temperatures showed little differences, while the residue char yields were slightly increased with the addition of LCE. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008

Cyanate ester (CE) resin was modified with renewable resource, i.e. epoxidized soybean oil (ESO), and the effects of ESO content on the curing co-reaction, morphologies, water absorption behaviors, thermal and mechanical properties of CE/ESO blends were studied. Differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) were employed to characterize the ESO-modified CE polymer networks. Homogeneous structures were observed for low-content of ESO modified CE systems by SEM, while ESO-rich particles were observed in the modified systems with ESO above 15 wt %. The blend of the CE and ESO resulted in an excellent combination as a new biobased thermoset material having relatively high mechanical properties with 15 and 20 wt % ESO as replacement of CE. Enhanced elongations at break were observed for the modified systems while the tensile strengths kept about the same level at the same time. The storage moduli and glass transition temperatures of the modified systems in the glassy state and rubber plateau were observed to be lower than those of neat CE with the increase of ESO weight percent. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2008. © 2008 Society of Plastics Engineers