Bio-based alternative to the diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A with controlled materials properties.

A series of biobased epoxy monomers were prepared from diphenolic acid (DPA) by transforming the free acid into n-alkyl esters and the phenolic hydroxyl groups into diglycidyl ethers. NMR experiments confirmed that the diglycidyl ethers of diphenolates (DGEDP) with methyl and ethyl esters have 6 and 3 mol % of glycidyl ester. Increasing the chain length of DGEDP n-alkyl esters from methyl to n-pentyl resulted in large decreases in epoxy resin viscosity (700-to-11 Pa·s). Storage modulus of DPA epoxy resins, cured with isophorone diamine, also varied with n-alkyl ester chain length (e.g., 3300 and 2100 MPa for the methyl and n-pentyl esters). The alpha transition temperature of the cured materials showed a linear decrease from 158 to 86 °C as the ester length increases. The Young’s modulus and tensile strengths were about 1150 and 40 MPa, respectively, for all the cured resins tested (including DGEBA) and varied little as a function of ester length. Degree of cure for the different epoxy resins, determined ...