Verfahren zur Herstellung eines härtbaren Epoxyharzes

The invention comprises a thermosetting resin comprising the reaction product of epichlorohydrin or a dihalogen hydrin and a bisphenol of the formula in which R is an aromatic nucleus which may contain unreactive substituents and a process for the production of thermosetting synthetic resins which comprises reacting vanillyl alcohol in acid medium with at least an equimolar amount of a phenol and reacting the bisphenol thus obtained with epichlorohydrin at elevated temperature in the presence of alkali. The epoxy resins are hardened with the usual catalysts, e.g. acids, acid anhydrides, primary and secondary aliphatic and aromatic monovalent and polyfunctional amines or polyamides. In examples vanillyl alcohol is heated with phenol or o-cresol in the presence of hydrochloric acid with removal of water and the bisphenol obtained is heated with epichlorhydrin in the presence of sodium hydroxide. The products are mixed with phthalic anhydride and allowed to set at elevated temperature.ALSO:Bisphenols for use in the preparation of thermosetting resins (see Group IV(a)) are prepared by reacting vanillyl alcohol in acid medium with at least an equimolar amount of a phenol e.g. phenol or o-cresol.