Date of Award

5-2020

Degree Type

Honors College Thesis

Department

Polymers and High Performance Materials

First Advisor

Jeffrey S. Wiggins, Ph.D.

Advisor Department

Polymers and High Performance Materials

Abstract

Epoxide-amine matrix materials containing microparticles with the same chemical composition provide a model system to study interphase formation in highly crosslinked epoxide-amine matrix materials. The epoxide monomer was varied between three different monomer systems to study the model system’s relationship with crosslink density. The same amine monomer, cure procedure, and stoichiometric ratio of epoxide and amine groups were used to prepare each type of microparticle and matrix material. The differences in the epoxide monomer structure affected the crosslink density of the unmodified matrix material, which was concluded to influence the effect of microparticle presence on crosslink density. For the unmodified matrix material with the lowest crosslink density, the introduction of microparticles led to the greatest increase in crosslink density. The differences in the epoxide monomer structure also affected network formation upon particle incorporation. Specifically, the presence of tertiary amines in the epoxide monomer structure was related to the effect of microparticle presence on network homogeneity. For the epoxide monomers with less tertiary amines, the network homogeneity was decreased upon microparticle incorporation. An adequately high presence of tertiary amines in the epoxide monomer structure was concluded to prevent the formation of a poor interphase.

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