Thermal behaviour of benzoxazine blends based on epoxy and cyanate ester

Abstract

In the present work, an attempt has been made to develop high-performance polymeric hybrid binary blends of epoxy/benzoxazine and benzoxazine/cyanate ester with varying weight percentages (25/75, 50/50 and 75/25 wt%) of resins, namely, bisphenol-F epoxy resin (DGEBF), benzoxazines [bisphenol–F/aniline (BF-a) and imidazole core-based bisphenol/aniline (IBP-a)] and cyanate ester [bisphenol-F bifunctional cyanate ester (BF-CE)]. The molecular structure, polymerisation temperature/cure behaviour, glass transition temperature (Tg) and thermal stability of the neat polymeric matrices and binary hybrid blends of polymeric matrices were characterised using different analytical techniques, viz. Fourier Transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR), Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy (NMR), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Among the binary hybrid blends, the lowest polymerisation temperatures (Tp) were noticed in the case of blends of epoxy/benzoxazine were 219°C for DGEBF/BF-a (25/75 wt%) and 170°C for DGEBF/IBP-a (25/75 wt%). Similarly, in the case of blends of benzoxazine/cyanate ester, the lowest values of Tp observed were 155°C and 153°C for BF-a/BF-CE (75/25 wt%) and IBP-a/BF-CE (75/25 wt%), respectively. The highest values of Tg observed for the blends of epoxy/benzoxazine were 175°C and 254°C for DGEBF/BF-a (25/75 wt%) and DGEBF/IBP-a (25/75 wt%), respectively. Whereas, the highest values of Tg observed in the case of blends of benzoxazine/cyanate ester were 234°C and 278°C for BF-a/BF-CE (25/75 wt%) and IBP-a/BF-CE (75/25 wt%), respectively. From the TGA results of blends, the maximum degradation temperature (Tmax) and limiting oxygen index (LOI) value calculated from the char yield, which ascertain that almost all the binary hybrid blends of epoxy/benzoxazine and benzoxazine/cyanate ester possess good flame retardant behaviour.