Volumetric expanding study on anhydride curing epoxy system

The curing effect of three kinds of alkenyl succinic anhydrides (ASA) with varying side chain length (2-octenyl, 2-dodecenyl and 2-hexadecenyl succinic anhydrides, namely 2-OSA, 2-DSA, and 2-HSA, respectively) on bisphenol-A epoxy system was studied in this study. The mixture resins with hardener and accelerator were cured in air circulating oven. Also the commercial tetrahydrophthalic anhydride (THPA) was used to harden the epoxy resin for the comparison of epoxy cure system studied. In this work, it is observed that the additions of anhydrides led to a volume expansion of cured epoxy resin. The results of volume expansion with chain length of alkenyl succinic anhydrides were discussed on thermal and mechanical properties.