Impact-strength improvement of epoxy resins reinforced with a biodegradable polymer

Biobased epoxy materials were prepared from diglycidylether of bisphenol-A (DGEBA) and epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) with a thermally latent initiator. The effects of ESO content on the impact and adhesive strengths of the ESO-reinforced DGEBA epoxy system were investigated using several techniques and the mechanical properties of the DGEBA/ESO blends were studied by means of measurements of the flexural strength (sigma(f)) and elastic modulus (E-b). In the result, the Izod impact strength of the DGEBA/ESO blends was significantly improved with the addition of ESO, owing to high intermolecular interactions in the DGEBA/ESO blends. The adhesive lap shear strength was increased with increasing ESO content to 40 wt% ESO. The sigma(f) and E-b at low ESO contents showed similar values to those of the neat DGEBA. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.