SYNTACTIC FOAMS BASED ON DGEBA/ANHYDRIDE/ EPOXIDIZED SOYBEAN OIL COPOLYMER

L.ESPOSITO; F.I. ALTUNA; R.A.RUSECKAITE; P.M.STEFANI

Alicante (España)

Conferencia; 1st International Conference on Biodegradale Polymers and Sustainable Composites; 2007

Syntactic epoxy foams are two-phase closed cell foams which are usually made by dispersing low density hollow particles (microballoons) in a matrix material. The presence of strong but lightweight particles leads syntactic foams to higher strength compared to single-phase closed cell foams (1). It is possible to tailor properties of syntactic foams by changing a wide variety of parameters, which include the matrix and microballoon materials, and microballoon size, size distribution, wall thickness and volume fraction (2). Nowadays, the increasing concern about the environmental protection have rise to the search of epoxidized substitutes derived from renewable resources. In this sense, functionalized vegetable oils (FVO) such as epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) are considered attractive candidates to replace at least a proportion of the traditional epoxy resins in thermosetting formulations