A new method to prepare rubber toughened epoxy with high modulus and high impact strength

Although epoxy resins can be substantially toughened by addition of a reactive liquid rubber, the improvement in toughness is inevitably accompanied by a significant loss in elastic modulus and yield strength. This paper presents a novel route for preparing the liquid rubber/epoxy composites with high yield strength, Young׳s modulus and impact strength. By this new method, the epoxy composites with different grades of carboxyl terminated butadiene acrylonitrile copolymer (CTBN) and cured by different curing agents were prepared, and their mechanical properties were characterized. It is found that no matter what grades of CTBN, also regardless of curing agents, the composites prepared by the new method always exhibit much higher impact strength, yield strength and Young׳s modulus than the corresponding traditional composites, proving the new method to be somewhat universal. Especially, some CTBN/epoxy composites exhibit even higher yield strength and Young׳s modulus than that of pure epoxy.