Effect of biodegradable epoxidized castor oil on physicochemical and mechanical properties of epoxy resins

Biobased epoxy materials were prepared from diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) and epoxidized castor oil (ECO) initiated by a latent thermal catalyst. The physicochemical and mechanical interfacial properties of the DGEBA/ECO blends were investigated. As a result, the thermal stability of the cured epoxy blends showed a maximum value in the presence of 10 wt.-% ECO content, which was attributed to the excellent network structure in the DGEBA/ECO blends. The storage modulus and glass transition temperature of the blends were lower than those of neat epoxy resins. The mechanical interfacial properties of the cured specimens were significantly increased with increasing the ECO content. This could be interpreted in terms of the additional of larger soft segments of ECO into the epoxy resins and thus reducing the crosslinking density of the epoxy network, which results in increasing toughness in the blends.