Recent Advancements in Epoxy Resins: Imine, Transesterification, and Disulfide Vitrimer Systems

ABSTRACT The exceptional dimensional stability, mechanical strength, and resistance to heat and chemicals have made epoxy resins essential materials in numerous applications, such as automotive and aerospace components, the appliance industry, decorative paints and coatings, electronic potting applications, biomedical devices, and industrial equipment. However, due to their highly crosslinked thermoset nature, epoxy resins are not reprocessable, repairable, or recyclable, which has led to a significant amount of material waste at the end of their service life. With increasing environmental awareness and cost pressures, there has been a growing demand over the past decade to develop epoxy systems that can be reprocessed through molding or remelting. In this context, vitrimers have emerged as a promising alternative, enabling, in principle, recyclability and reparability through dynamic covalent chemistry. These properties make vitrimers a potentially powerful class of sustainable polymer materials, extending beyond the use of slowly recyclable plastics. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of epoxy vitrimers, with particular emphasis on systems incorporating dynamic bonds from the imine, ester, and disulfide families, as well as composite formulations and the latest advances reported in this rapidly expanding field.