How to increase the Tg of Epoxy/DICY system which has to be cured very fast (10 minutes)? And the cured product must be transparent.
Thanks.
Dear Md Nazmul Huda ,
In order to answer your question, it would be good to know a bit more about the structure of your epoxy, since this will determine with big influence the mechanical properties of your final crosslinked material. Nevertheless, I can suggest some things for you to try:
1) Maybe some post-curing stage, at higher temperature after the initial curing stage might be useful to increase the crosslinking density and hence, the mechanical properties.
2) The addition of some catalysts might increase the reaction rate, thus making a less "flexible" network, since the chains do not have the time to orientate.
3) You may check on the molar ratio of epoxy/DICY as well. From these two, one should provide more flexibility and the other should provide more rigidity to the network. Maybe modifying this you can increase also you Tg.
4) Although you mention that you need to keep this thermoset transparent, the addition of solid fillers (silicon nanoparticles for example), on very low amounts (ca. 1%, or even less), will increase the rigidity of your network as well. The filler should be something that interacts with some groups of your thermosetting network (forming H bonding for example). The more interactions, the better.
Hope this helps.
Best,
Agustin
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