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Latent imidazolium phosphinate ionic liquids (IMPILs) with innovative structures were developed as high-performance curing agents for one-component epoxy systems. These room-temperature liquid IMPILs exhibit exceptional compatibility with liquid epoxy resin (EP, E-51), overcoming the immiscibility limitations of conventional curing agents. These IMPILs efficiently cure EP (E-51) at moderate temperatures (109–180 °C) in the mass ratio range of 100:10–100:15, while maintaining storage stability with a 15-day pot life at 25 °C. The cured thermosets achieve impressive overall performance: tensile strength of 88 MPa (surpassing thermosets cured with 1-methylimidazole or 1,2-dimethylimidazole), good thermal stability (T10% = 374–407 °C), and unexpected flame retardancy (LOI = 30.7–35.1%, surpassing standard epoxy resins). This work establishes IMPILs as a novel class of liquid latent curing agents that satisfy both long-term storage requirements and excellent thermal-curing performance for advanced epoxy composites.
Xiao et al. (Wed,) studied this question.