Journal article
Toughening vinyl ester resins with electrospun polysulfone fibers
Polymeric materials science and engineering, Vol.89, pp.656-657
01 Oct 2003
Abstract
Other thermosetting resins, like epoxies, have experienced great success from traditional methods of toughening like matrix and rubber toughening. Vinyl esters have not experienced the same degree of success with these toughening methods due to their incompatibility with rubber modifiers and the nature of the cure. Since matrix toughening and rubber toughening have not shown a great deal of success for vinyl esters, other ideas for toughening must be developed. Using thermoplastics as a toughening agent is another concept for improving the fracture toughness of brittle thermosets. Specifically, polysulfone has been used to toughen epoxy resin in a similar fashion as rubber modifiers. Polysulfone is dissolved in the epoxy resin and then allowed to precipitate from solution during cure. Phase separation in such systems can result in co-continuous morphologies that enhance toughness. As with rubber modification, vinyl esters pose compatibility issues with thermoplastics not experienced by other thermosets. In this work, a technique for toughening is developed that does not depend upon phase separation. Instead, a second thermoplastic phase is added to the vinyl ester composite before cure. Electrospinning is used to produce a second thermoplastic phase so that it mimics the co-continuous morphology of the thermoplastic phase when toughening epoxies.
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Details
- Title
- Toughening vinyl ester resins with electrospun polysulfone fibers
- Creators
- E RobinetteG Palmese
- Publication Details
- Polymeric materials science and engineering, Vol.89, pp.656-657
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Chemical and Biological Engineering
- Identifiers
- 991019201364004721