Tailoring Epoxy Resin Foams by Pre-Curing with Neat Amine Hardeners and Its Derived Carbamates.

The use of amine-based carbamates with their dual function, acting as amine curing agents and CO2 blowing agents after their decomposition without by-products, are promising for ecofriendly epoxy foams as high-performance materials. However, controlling cell morphology requires a proper adjustment of the viscosity at the foaming step. The viscosity is altered not only by blending neat amine and its derived carbamate at a fixed pre-curing time, but also by changing the pre-curing time at a fixed blend ratio. Within this study, diglycidylether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) epoxy resin is mixed with different blend ratios of isophorone diamine (IPDA) and its derived carbamate (B-IPDA). The systems are characterized by DSC and rheology experiments to identify the pre-curing effects on the derived epoxy foams. Epoxy foams at a blend ratio of 30/70w IPDA/B-IPDA showed the best foam morphology and an optimum Tg compared to other blend ratios. Furthermore, it was found that both pre-curing times, 2 h and 3 h, for the 30/70w IPDA/B-IPDA system reveal a more homogeneous cell structure. The study proves that the blending of neat amine and carbamate is beneficial for the foaming performance of carbamate systems.

Effect of Resin and Blocked/Unblocked Hardener Mixture on the Production of Epoxy Foams with CO2 Blocked Hardener in Batch Foaming Process.

The present study focuses on the processing and properties of epoxy foams by the use of CO2 blocked hardener N-aminoethylpiperazine (B-AEP) and different resins. Although some studies described the foaming with carbamates, little attention has been given to the interaction of resin properties (such as viscosity) on the foaming performance. Therefore, two resins, diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A (DGEBA) and epoxy novolac (EN), as well as their 50:50 blend, were foamed with B-AEP and unblocked/blocked AEP hardener mixtures in a batch foaming process. Furthermore, the commercially available chemical blowing agent para-toluenesulfonyl hydrazide (TSH) was used as a benchmark for commonly used chemical blowing agents. The lowest density in this study was reached by the DGEBA+B-AEP system in the range of 215 kg/m3 with the drawback of an inhomogeneous cell structure and high cell size distribution. The best cell morphology and lowest cell size distribution was reached with the EN+15:85% unblocked:blocked hardener mixture, resulting in a density in the range of 394 kg/m3. A syntactic foam was achieved by a DGEBA+50:50% unblocked:blocked hardener mixture with a density of around 496 kg/m3. It was found that a higher viscosity of the resin lead to an increase in the density and a decrease in the cell size distribution range as a result of a closer expansion time window.