High Impact Resistance Epoxy Resins by Incorporation of Quadruply Hydrogen Bonded Supramolecular Polymers

A bisphenol A based epoxy was incorporated with a quadruply hydrogen bonded supramolecular polymer as a toughening agent to prepare a composite epoxy resin with higher impact resistance. The supramolecular polymer comprising poly-（propylene glycol） bis（2-aminopropyl） ether chains and 2-ureido-4[1H]-pyrimidinone moieties（UPy） self-assembled into spherical domains with sizes of 300 nm to 600 nm in diameter by micro phase separation in bulk epoxy matrixes. A significant improvement of 300% in impact resistance of the supramolecular polymer incorporated epoxy resin was obtained when the content of supramolecular polymer was 10 wt%. Tensile tests showed that the mechanical properties of the modified epoxy resin containing the hydrogen-bonded supramolecular polymers are also improved compared with those of the neat epoxy resin.