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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Peoria, Illinois » National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research » Bio-oils Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #357103
Research Project: Industrial Monomers and Polymers from Plant Oils

Location: Bio-oils Research

Title: A renewable tung oil-derived nitrile rubber and its potential use in epoxy-toughening modifiers

Author
item XIAO, LAIHUI - Chinese Academy Of Forestry
item Liu, Zengshe - Kevin
item HU, FANGFANG - Chinese Academy Of Forestry
item WANG, YIGANG - Chinese Academy Of Forestry
item HUANG, JINRUI - Chinese Academy Of Forestry
item CHEN, JIE - Chinese Academy Of Forestry
item NIE, XIAOAN - Chinese Academy Of Forestry

Submitted to: RSC Advances
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/17/2019
Publication Date: 8/19/2019
Citation: Xiao, L., Liu, Z., Hu, F., Wang, Y., Huang, J., Chen, J., Nie, X. 2019. A renewable tung oil-derived nitrile rubber and its potential use in epoxy-toughening modifiers. RSC Advances. 44:25880-25889. https://doi.org/10.1039/c9ra01918a.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/c9ra01918a

Interpretive Summary: In this research, we discovered that tung oil based modifier prepared by emulsion polymerization was effective in toughening epoxy resin. Epoxy resins are widely used in the engineering industry. However, the high cross-linking structure of epoxy resins contribute to the poor fracture toughness of the epoxy resin. Our results indicated that the new synthesized copolymer toughened the epoxy resin; for example, the elongation at break may be up to 89.48%, and it also lowered the glass transition temperature of epoxy resin which will benefit the engineering industry.

Technical Abstract: In this study, a modifier (CTMA) prepared by emulsion copolymerization of tung oil fatty acid, methyl esters of tung oil fatty acid and acrylonitrile was used to toughen epoxy resins. The structural characterization of the copolymer was carried out by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, 1H NMR spectroscopy and high-temperature gel permeation chromatography. Mechanical testing, thermal characterization and scanning electron microscopy were conducted to investigate the properties of epoxy resin modified by the copolymer and further reveal its toughening mechanism. The results indicated that the new synthesized copolymer effectively toughened the epoxy resin because the elongation-at-break was increasewd to 89.48%, the maximum toughness calculated by work before break was nearly 4.6 times that of the neat epoxy resin, and apparent shear yields and plastic deformations were observed in the morphology of the fractured surfaces. CTMA, which acts as a flexible cross-linker in the epoxy thermoset, may decrease the cross-linking density.