Preparation and Thermo-Mechanical Characterization of Novel Epoxy Resins Using Renewable Resource Materials

The present paper reports the preparation and thermo-mechanical characterization of epoxy resin from renewable resource materials viz. cardanol and furfural. The cardanol furfural based epoxy resin was prepared by reacting cardanol furfural based novolac resin with molar excess of epichlorohydrin, in basic medium, at 120 °C. The cardanol furfural based novolac resin was synthesized by reacting cardanol and furfural in the molar ratios viz. 1.0:0.5, 1.0:0.6, 1.0:0.7 and 1.0:0.8, respectively, using succinic acid as catalyst. The prepared resin samples were characterized by Fourier-transform infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopic analysis. The prepared epoxy resin samples were cured by using diaminodiphenylmethane. The samples were cured at 160 °C, in an air oven, which was determined by peak temperatures from the dynamic differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) scans. DSC technique was used to investigate the curing behavior. Thermal stability, as assesed by dynamic thermogravimetric traces of the epoxy resin sample with molar ratio 1:0.8, was found to be the highest among all other samples. The castings of the cured samples were used for the determination of mechanical properties such as tensile strength, impact strength etc. whereas cured film samples were used to observe the effect of various chemicals and solvents on the surface of the film. The epoxy resin sample prepared from high molar ratio i.e. 1:0.8 was found to exhibit better mechanical and chemical properties than other samples.