Synthesis and cure behaviors of diglycidylether of bisphenol-S epoxy resins

In this work, diglycidylether of bisphenol-S (DGEBS) epoxy resin was prepared by alkaline condensation of bisphenol-S (BPS) with epichlorohydrin (ECH) in the presence of NaOH catalyst. The structure of the synthesized DGEBS epoxy resin was confirmed by IR, NMR spectra, and elemental analysis. The curing reaction and glass transition temperature (T_g) of DGEBS epoxy resin cured with phthalic anhydride (PA) and tetrahydrophthalic anhydride (THPA) as curing agents were studied by dynamic differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The thermal stability of the cured specimen was investigated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). As a result, the activation energy (E _a) of DGEBS/PA system was higher than that of DGEBS/THPA system, whereas T_g, initial decomposed temperature (IDT), and decomposition activation energy (E_t) of DGEBS/PA were lower than those of DGEBS/THPA. This was probably due to the fact that the crosslinking density of DGEBS/THPA was increased by ring strain of curing agent.