Structural heterogeneity in epoxies

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The effects of different cure procedures on the structure and properties of epoxy samples made from diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) and mixtures of two linear aliphatic diamines were studied. The elastic modulus, fracture toughness, impact resistance, and glass transition temperature were determined for various cure schemes. The morphologies of the cured resins were characterized with small angle X‐ray scattering. The results show that samples with the same average morphology (molecular network structure) have similar elastic moduli and glass transition temperatures. If some heterogeneity is introduced in the molecular network structure without changing the average structure, however, the experiments indicate that the toughness can be increased without significantly sacrificing other properties.