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Morphology of Epoxy/Block Copolymer Blends

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Abstract

The ability of block copolymers to generate nanostructures when mixed with epoxy thermosetting systems is deeply analyzed. Both amphiphilic and chemically modified di- or triblock copolymers have been used with this purpose. In both cases, one of the blocks is miscible with epoxy system (or even can react with it) before and after curing, while the other one is immiscible before or after curing, leading to morphology development by self-assembly (SA) or reaction-induced phase separation (RIPS), respectively. In some cases, nanostructure development can occur by a combination of both mechanisms or even some demixing of the miscible block can also happen, generating different morphologies. Depending on that and on other parameters like employed hardener, cure cycle, copolymer block ratio, and topology among others, different morphologies such as spherical or wormlike micelles, hexagonally packed cylinders, bilayer micelles, or mixtures of them can be obtained. The effect of nanofillers on morphologies of ternary systems based on epoxy systems nanostructured with block copolymers is also analyzed.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support from the Basque Country Government (Grupos Consolidados, IT-776-13) and the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness – Spain (MAT MAT2015-66149-P) is gratefully acknowledged.

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Correspondence to Galder Kortaberria .

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Kortaberria, G. (2016). Morphology of Epoxy/Block Copolymer Blends. In: Parameswaranpillai, J., Hameed, N., Pionteck, J., Woo, E. (eds) Handbook of Epoxy Blends. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18158-5_32-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18158-5_32-2

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Morphology of Epoxy/Block Copolymer Blends
    Published:
    22 March 2016

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18158-5_32-2

  2. Original

    Morphology of Epoxy/Block Copolymer Blends
    Published:
    30 January 2016

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18158-5_32-1