HIGH-TEMPERATURE THERMOSETS BASED ON THE OCCURRING OF A NOVEL SPIRODILACTAM BISALLYLETHER AND BISMALEIMIDE

Spirodilactam bisallylether is a new high temperature performance monomer. It melts at 154-degrees-C, and is thermally inactive in forming a homopolymer. However, it reacts readily with a bismaleimide via ''ene'' reaction. Therefore, it could be used as a comonomer and an effective toughening modifier for bismaleimide. The properties of the blends of spirodilactam bisallylether and 4,4'-bismaleimidodiphenyl methane were studied. The cocured resins have high glass transition temperature, > 300-degrees-C. By adding 30 to 40 mole % of the bisallylether, the compact tension toughness of the bismaleimide was improved to 0.7 MPa-m1/2. Therefore, the resins have a combination of high glass transition temperature and toughness. They also showed good flexural properties. Despite the high water absorption, 5 to 7%, the resins retained high hot/wet flexural proper-ties because of the high glass transition.