Epoxy/benzoxazinyl POSS nanocomposite resin with low dielectric constant and excellent thermal stability

Abstract Benzoxazinyl modified polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (BZPOSS) is successfully synthesized and used to prepare nanocomposites with bisphenol A type epoxy resin (E51). The differential scanning calorimetry results showed the curing peak temperature of E51/BZPOSS blend decrease to 242°C, suggesting the high catalytic activity of BZPOSS to the polymerization of E51. The scanning electron microscope micrographs of poly(E51/BZPOSS)s and silicon element distribution maps given by EDS both demonstrated homogeneous dispersion of BZPOSS. Dielectric properties tests confirmed the dielectric constant can be reduced by the introduction of BZPOSS, which is attributed to the nano‐pores from the cage structure of POSS. When 20 wt% BZPOSS was added, the dielectric constant decreased to 2.28 at 1 MHz. Meanwhile, DMA and TGA results indicated the thermal stability and heat resistance of poly(E51/BZPOSS)s at high temperature increased with the increase of BZPOSS, which is due to the increase of the crosslinking density and the change of crosslinking structure of copolymer.