Epoxy-phenolic novolac-montmorillonite hybrid nanocomposites: Novel synthesis methods and their characteristics

Epoxy resin‐layered silicate nanocomposites (ER‐LSN) were successfully synthesized using pre‐intercalated novolac resin‐layered silicate nanocomposites (NR‐LSN) as epoxy hardeners to develop novel formulations for copper‐clad laminate sheets (CCLS) with enhanced properties. We used melt, melt‐ultrasonic, solution, and solution‐ultrasonic intercalation methods to prepare NR‐LSN with different kinds of novolac resins including phenolic novolac (PN), bisphenol‐A novolac (BN) and phenolic aralkyl novolac, so‐called Xylok (XK). We employed different kinds of montmorillonites (MMT) that were organically modified with benzyl dimethyl octadecyl ammonium and bis(2‐hydroxy‐ethyl)methyl tallow ammonium. It was confirmed that the synthesized NR‐LSN and ER‐LSN were intercalated or exfoliated, and exhibited stable structure owing to the effective action of high‐intensity ultrasound. These materials showed significantly improved thermal and mechanical properties suitable for halogen‐free CCLS with highly reliable performance. Polym. Eng. Sci. 44:1170–1177, 2004. © 2004 Society of Plastics Engineers.