A reactive modifier that enhances the thermal mechanical properties of epoxy resin through the formation of multiple hydrogen-bonded network

In this study, we synthesized a reactive modifier [DOPO-tris(azetidine-2,4-dione)], terminated with three azetidine-2,4-dione functional groups, from [(9,10-dihydro-9-oxa-10-phosphaphenanthrene-10-yl)tris(4-aminophenyl)methane; DOPO-triamine] and [4-isocyanato-4′-(3,3-dimethyl-2,4-dioxo-acetidino)diphenylmethane; IDD]. We embedded this reactive modifier, which contains multiple hydrogen bond donor and acceptor units, into epoxy resins to promote intermolecular interactions and to tailor its flexibility through the formation of unique pseudo-crosslinked polymer networks. The resulted epoxy resins were found to exhibit glass transition temperature as high as 187 °C and excellent flame retardancy with limited oxygen index (LOI) values around 38. Meanwhile, the dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) of epoxy systems increases from 0.67 to 2.13 GPa for storage modulus and 0.73–1.67 GPa for loss modulus at 100 °C. Incorporation of reactive modifier into epoxy networks with noncovalent interactions via thermosetting blend was demonstrated to be an effective way to enhance the thermal and physical properties simultaneously.