Thermally stable metal-containing epoxy polymers from an epoxy resin-Schiff base metal complex-maleic anhydride system

Crosslinking of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) with tetradentate and hexadentate Schiff base metal complexes of transition metals and maleic anhydride (MA) was investigated. The crosslinking reaction is proposed to proceed through a complex mechanism. Tetrabutylammonium hydroxide was found to be a suitable catalyst for such reaction. The properties of the resulting metal-containing epoxy polymers investigated were glass transition temperature, thermal stability and tensile strength. The copper-containing epoxy polymer obtained from tetradentate Schiff base metal complexes at the mole ratio of DGEBA:metal complex:MA = 1:0.2:0.2 showed T-g at 143 degreesC and tensile strength of 62 N/mm(2). The polymer showed good thermal stability comparing to the DGEBA-MA system. Upon heating at 250 degrees C for 48 h, the weight loss of the polymer was 2.8%. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.