Final microstructure analisis of styrene crosslinked vinylester and unsaturated polyester resin thermosets

MOSIEWICKI, MIRNA A.; LEITE, FABIO; HERMANN, PAULO; DA SILVA CURVELO, ANTONIO; SCHROEDER, WALTER F.; ARANGUREN, MIRTA I.; BORRAJO, JULIO

Florianopolis, Brazil

Conferencia; 1st French-Brazilian Meeting on Polymers FBPOL2005; 2005

Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina and the Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymères Organiques

The aim of this work is to study the relationship between the final morphologies of styrene/vinylester (St/VE) and styrene/unsaturated polyester (St/UP) cross-linked thermosets and the St-resin initial ratio, and to compare the developed microstructures with the use of two different resins. The final microstructures of these materials were investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM). VE and UP systems cure to form nanogel type structures during the reaction leading to the formation of final nodular morphologies which suggests the existence of multiple phases at the molecular level. Although of the differences in the molecular and final properties between both VE and UP systems the same tendency in the described morphologies was observed. The minor differences between both systems were analysed.