Rubber-Toughened Polyester Resins

✍ Scribed by Alexander, I. J.

• Book ID: 104527203
• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 1983
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 67 KB
• Volume: 15
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0007-1641
• DOI: 10.1002/pi.4980150120

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Blending elastomers into plastics to produce polymer composites with improved properties, particularly toughness, is a well known technique exemplified by such products as high‐impact polystyrene (HIPS), ABS and rubber‐toughened epoxies. In this present work a wide range of elastomers has been studied to find polyester resin‐rubber compositions which are storage‐stable, have acceptable rheology and cure characteristics, and, when cured, provide materials with significantly improved toughness.

It has now been shown that commercially available liquid rubbers, when suitably modified, will remain dissolved in the resin without separation, and that the cured polyester‐rubber composition has a complex polyphase morphology which resembles, for example, that found in HIPS. The fracture energy of these materials has been shown to be many times that of conventional polyester resins.

In further work methods have been developed which make possible the incorporation of much higher molecular weight rubbers into polyester resins to produce impact resistant products.