Curable resin composition and short-cure method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9249282-B2
Application number	US-201514686847-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 15, 2015
Priority date	Feb 27, 2012
Publication date	Feb 2, 2016
Grant date	Feb 2, 2016

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a method for utilizing the exothermic energy generated by a low temperature cure reaction to access a high-temperature cure reaction, which is otherwise energetically inaccessible at a chosen tool temperature, thereby producing a cured resin matrix with properties closely matching to those produced via high-temperature cure reactions but achieved via a short cure time and low cure temperature. Also disclosed is a short-cure resin composition containing: (a) at least one multifunctional epoxy resin having an epoxy functionality of greater than 1; (b) a hardener composition containing (i) at least one aliphatic or cycloaliphatic amine curing agent having one or more amino groups per molecule; (ii) at least one aromatic amine curing agent having one or more amino groups per molecule; and optionally, (iii) an imidazole as curing accelerator. The improved properties of this resin composition include being curable at a temperature of ≦120° C. for a time period of less than 10 minutes to achieve a degree of cure higher than that derived from the same composition with just (i) aliphatic/cycloaliphatic amine or (ii) aromatic amine in isolation.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A curable epoxy resin composition having a viscosity suitable for Resin Transfer Molding (RTM), said composition comprising:
(a) at least one multifunctional epoxy resin having an epoxy functionality of greater than 1 and that functionality is based on glycidyl amine, or glycidyl ether, or both;
(b) a hardener composition comprising:
(i) at least one aliphatic or cycloaliphatic amine curing agent having one or more amino groups per molecule and capable of individually initiating a curing reaction of said at least one multifunctional epoxy resin at a cure onset temperature within the range of 30° C.-100° C. and selected from the group consisting of: isophorone diamine, triethylamine, diethylamine, triethylenetetramine (TETA), and polyether amines;
(ii) at least one aromatic amine curing agent having one or more amino groups per molecule and capable of individually initiating a curing reaction of said at least one multifunctional epoxy resin at a cure onset temperature of 120° C. or greater and selected from the group consisting of: 3,3′ diaminodiphenylsulphone, 4,4′ diaminodiphenylsulphone; 4,4′-methylene-bis-(3-chloro-2,6-diethylaniline) (MCDEA), 4,4′-methylene-bis-(2,6-diethylaniline) (MDEA), 2,6-diethylaniline (DEA), and dianiline; and
(iii) an imidazole as curing accelerator,

wherein, per 100 parts of multifunctional epoxy resin (a), the amount of the curing agents (i) and (ii) is 10-90 parts, and the amount of imidazole (iii) is up to 10 parts, and
wherein said epoxy resin composition is curable at a temperature below the cure onset temperature of the aromatic amine curing agent for a time period of less than 5 minutes to achieve a degree of cure of 95% or higher.

2. The curable epoxy resin composition of claim 1 , wherein the hardener composition comprises isophorone diamine and either 3,3′-diaminodiphenylsulphone or 4,4′ diaminodiphenylsulphone.

3. The curable epoxy resin composition of claim 1 , wherein the at least one multifunctional epoxy resin comprises a combination of a di-functional epoxy resin and a tri-functional or tetra-functional epoxy resin.

4. The curable epoxy resin composition of claim 1 , wherein equivalent ratio of amine groups to epoxy groups in the composition is 1:1.

5. The curable epoxy resin composition of claim 1 , wherein the multifunctional epoxy resin is selected from a group consisting of:

6. The curable epoxy resin composition of claim 1 , wherein the multifunctional epoxy resin contains both glycidyl amine and glycidyl ether functional groups.

7. The curable epoxy resin composition of claim 1 , wherein the aliphatic or cycloaliphatic amine curing agent is isophorone diamine.

Assignees

• Cytec Tech Corp

Inventors

• Meegan Jonathan E

Classifications

• Y10T428/31511

  Of epoxy ether · CPC title

• C08G59/56

  together with other curing agents · CPC title

• C08G59/504

  containing an atom other than nitrogen belonging to the amine group, carbon and hydrogen · CPC title

• C08G85/00

  General processes for preparing compounds provided for in this subclass · CPC title

• C08G59/00

  Polycondensates containing more than one epoxy group per molecule (low-molecular-weight polyepoxy compounds C07); Macromolecules obtained by polymerising compounds containing more than one epoxy group per molecule using curing agents or catalysts which react with the epoxy groups · CPC title