Co-enhancement of toughness and strength of room-temperature curing epoxy adhesive derived from hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene based polyurethane resin

Incorporation of flexible chains into epoxy adhesives facilitates toughening but usually poses an opposite effect on strengthening. Herein, by combining hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) with polyether diol as soft chains, epoxy-terminated polyurethane (EHTPU) is synthesized, a strategy balancing strengthening and toughening is developed. The use of polyolefin soft chains substantially contributes to sea-island phase separation for maintaining low glass transition temperature (Tg) and high strength and toughness simultaneously. Specifically, the modified epoxy adhesive has seen a significant increase in shear strength to 19.75 MPa, tensile strength to 48.25 MPa and fracture toughness to 3.63 MPa·m1/2, with increment of 914 %, 268 %, and 149 %, respectively, compared to neat epoxy. Moreover, even under low temperatures of -45 °C, the modified epoxy resin can still maintain a high shear strength, demonstrating excellent low-temperature adhesion performance. At the same time, the incorporation of EHTPU does not significantly affect the overall thermal stability of the epoxy resin, meeting the requirements for stability in practical applications. It is worth mentioning that the adhesive exhibit excellent bonding performance under different environments and substrates, indicating that this composite material has broad application prospects in various industrial fields. These findings provide valuable insights into optimizing the performance of epoxy resins by controlling the introduction of specific modifiers and offer new ideas and methods for the development of room temperature curing epoxy resin adhesives.