Abstract
Epoxy resins are a class of thermosetting polymers widely used for structural application. However, as epoxy resins are inherently brittle because of their highly cross-linked structure, a great effort has been made to improve the fracture toughness. A widely used method for this purpose is the addition of second-phase polymeric particles, and over the past decades, great success has been achieved in this area. This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of the development in rubber-toughened epoxy. First, we review the history of rubber-toughened epoxy and different kinds of rubbers used for toughening epoxy. Then, we summarize the factors affecting the toughening effect and mechanisms accounting for rubber-toughened epoxy. Finally, we discuss some new trends in this field.
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Xu, SA., Song, XX. (2017). Introduction to Rubber Toughened Epoxy Polymers. In: Parameswaranpillai, J., Hameed, N., Pionteck, J., Woo, E. (eds) Handbook of Epoxy Blends. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40043-3_1
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