Synthesis and application of phenolic resin internally toughened by chain extension polymer of epoxidized soybean oil

Abstract

A novel epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) internally toughened phenolic resin(ESO-IT-PR) with both good toughness and excellent thermal stability was prepared as the matrix resin of copper clad laminate (CCL). FTIR was adopted to investigate the molecular structure of modified phenolic resins and SEM was used to observe the micro morphology of their impacted intersections. The properties of CCLs prepared with these modified phenolic resins were studied to determine the optimal process and investigate the toughening mechanism. The main modifying mechanism is the etherification reaction between phenol hydroxyl and ESO catalyzed by triethanolamine and the chain extension polymerization between ESO and multi-amine gives the long-chain ESO epoxy grafting on the phenolic resin prepolymer. when the ESO content is 30% and the curing agent content is 7%, the ESO toughened phenolic resin possesses optimal performance. The flexible ESO epoxy shows significant toughening effect and it crosslinks with the phenolic resin to form an internally toughened network, which is the key factor for improving the solderleaching resistance of CCL prepared with this modified phenolic resin.