Catalyst Selection, Creep, and Stress Relaxation in High-Performance Epoxy Vitrimers

Vitrimers were created from a commercial high-performance anhydride-cured epoxy in the presence of various metal transesterification catalysts. Compressive creep strains greater than 50% were observed in samples containing dibutyltin diacetate or dibutyltin bis(2,4-pentanedionate) via a compression set experiment. Stress relaxation experiments were carried out in a parallel plate geometry and analyzed with a newly modified exponential model proposed to better describe the relaxation process. The results demonstrate that it is not only possible to realize reworkability on relatively short time scales (hundreds of seconds) without compromising the mechanical properties of these networks at elevated temperatures but that, with proper catalyst selection, this may be accomplished with negligible activity under curing conditions. This effort also highlights differences in the behavior of different transesterification catalysts in this context. The approach to the selection and analysis of the materials reported...