Epoxy Resin
Epoxy resin is a highly versatile product used in various
industries. It adheres to different materials including metal, glass, wood, and
fabric.
What is epoxy resin?
Epoxy resin (polyepoxides) is a polymer containing epoxide
groups. It’s made up of carbon chains that are linked to other elements like
nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen. The link happens through a covalent bond.
Epoxy resins may be reacted either with themselves through
catalytic homopolymerisation, or with a wide range of co-reactants including
polyfunctional amines, acids (and acid anhydrides), phenols, alcohols and thiols.
These co-reactants are often referred to as hardeners or curing agents, and the
cross-linking reaction is commonly referred to as curing.
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Chemistry of Epoxy Resin:
Most of the commercially used epoxy monomers are produced by
the reaction of a compound with acidic hydroxy groups and epichlorohydrin.
First a hydroxy group reacts in a coupling reaction with epichlorohydrin,
followed by dehydrohalogenation. Epoxy resins produced from such epoxy monomers
are called glycidyl-based epoxy resins. The hydroxy group may be derived from
aliphatic diols, polyols (polyether polyols), phenolic compounds or
dicarboxylic acids.
Phenols can be compounds such as bisphenol A, bisphenol Fand novolac. Polyols can be compounds such as 1, 4-butanediol. Di- and polyols lead to glycidyl ethers. Dicarboxylic acids such as hexahydrophthalic acid are used for diglycide ester resins. Instead of a hydroxy group, also the nitrogen atom of an amine or amide can be reacted with epichlorohydrin.
The most common epoxy resins are based on reacting epichlorohydrin (ECH) with bisphenol A, resulting in a different chemical substance known as bisphenol A diglycidyl ether (commonly known as BADGE or DGEBA). Bisphenol A-based resins are the most widely commercialized resins but also other bisphenols are analogously reacted with epichlorohydrin.
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