Monitoring the curing processes of epoxy oligomers with partially substituted polyethoxymetallosiloxanes by IR spectroscopy and thermomechanical analysis

Abstract In this work, the curing of «ED‐20» epoxy resin with partially siloxy‐substituted aluminum, iron, and zirconium siloxanes that we obtained previously was studied. The initial content of a metallosiloxane in the compositions was 5–50 wt% with respect to the resin. In all the cases, thermal curing was used to obtain a series of samples in the form of solid homogeneous materials. The fact of the epoxy ring opening in the resin was confirmed by IR spectroscopy. The catalytic properties of the metal atom in a metallosiloxane were found to affect the curing process. The samples demonstrate rather a high resistance to thermooxidative destruction, and in most cases, their glass transition temperatures are lower than those obtained upon standard curing of «ED‐20» resin with triethylenetetramine. Partially siloxy‐substituted metalloalkoxysiloxanes can be efficient agents for curing and formation of a hybrid material based on epoxy resins.