Enhancing the mechanical properties and heat resistance of epoxy resin via blending with polythioetherimide

In this work, poly(thioetherimide) (PTEI) was used to enhance the mechanical properties and thermal stability of an epoxy resin (EP), N,N,N ',N '-tetraglycidyl-4,4 '-diaminodiphenylmethane (TGDDM). The effect of PTEI on curing behavior, dynamic mechanical, thermal properties, mechanical properties and phase morphology were carefully investigated. The addition of PTEI could improve the performances of EP, and even if only low content of PTEI was added, the heat resistance and mechanical properties were improved, especially for the fracture toughness. When the addition of PTEI was 2 wt%, the impact strength, fracture toughness, elongation at break, tensile strength, and flexural strength of the modified epoxy increased by 78%, 50%, 25%, 30%, and 20%, respectively. In addition, phase morphology was also discussed to validate the results of thermal and mechanical analysis. All these results proved the superior performance of the modified EP.