Improvement of toughness of tetrafunctional epoxy (TGDDM) resin using polyamideimide (PAI) resin

In this study, 4,4′-tetraglycidyl diaminodiphenyl methane (TGDDM)/polyamideimide (PAI) blends were cured using diaminodiphenyl sulfone (DDS). And the effect of addition of different PAI contents to neat TGDDM was investigated in the thermal, mechanical, and morphological properties of the blends. The cure behavior and thermal stability of the cured specimens were monitored by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), respectively. Also, the critical stress intensity factor (K _1C) was measured in UTM, and the phase separation behavior and final morphology of TGDDM/PAI blends were examined in scanning electron microscopy (SEM). As a result, the cure temperature and cure activation energy (E _a) were decreased with increasing the PAI content. The decreasing of cure temperature and cure activation energy were probably due to the presence of secondary amine group of PAI backbone used as co-initiator. But, the decomposition activation energy (E₁) and K_1C value were increased up to 5, 10 phr of PAI content, respectively and they were decreased above the PAI contents. These results were explained on the basis of chain scission reaction by etherification. And morphology of blends observed from SEM was confirmed in co-continuous structures.