Improved performance of epoxies

Unmet Need: Use of renewable and nontoxic feedstock for epoxies

Currently over 90% of commercial epoxy resins are derived from the non-renewable petrochemical bisphenol A (BPA). However, BPA is considered as a suspicious endocrine disrupting chemical and may cause harm to human health. In the recent decade, a variety of biobased epoxies have been developed using renewable lignin, rosin, plant oil, vegetable oil etc., as substitutes for BPA epoxy; the abundant resource being vegetable oil, however it exhibits low reactivity, inadequate mechanical properties, poor heat resistance, etc. Recent studies based on structures of fatty acids derived vegetable oils, react in the same way as BPA with better properties but, are still insufficient to meeting in certain applications the demand for high glass transition temperature (Tg), modulus, strength and adhesion.

The Technology: Using comonomer and modifier for performance improvements of vegetable oil fatty-acid derived epoxies

To solve the issues mentioned above, there is a great need to develop a method to improve the overall application properties of bio-epoxies based on both fatty acid structures and triglyceride structures of vegetable oils. WSU inventors are proposing a unique strategy that uses an aromatic no-coplanar bio-triepoxy as a co-monomer and a hyperbranched prepolymer (HBP) as a modifier for the performance improvement of the fatty acid-based epoxies (FA-EP). It is found that the bio-triepoxy is effective in improving the mechanical properties, while the HBP modifier is effective in improving the adhesion property without compromising other properties. The prepared bio-epoxy materials exhibit comparable performances to the materials prepared from the commercial BPA epoxy resins.

Applications:

• Preparations of composites, adhesives, coatings, and electrical materials.

• Main matrix component in adhesives with high loading levels of up to 70 wt%.

• Additives or modifiers for existing BPA epoxy resins.

Advantages:

• Abundant resources and competitive cost of vegetable oil with respect to BPA epoxy resins.

• Improved glass transition temperature and mechanical strength of FA-EP with improved adhesion property.