Epoxy vitrimers catalyzed by chemically bonded tertiary amines

ALTUNA, FACUNDO I.; HOPPE, CRISTINA E.; WILLIAMS, ROBERTO J.J.

Mar del Plata

Congreso; XVI Simposio Latinoamericano de Polímeros/XIV Congreso Iberoamericano de Polímeros; 2018

Vitrimers are polymer networks, where some of the crosslinking points are formed by dynamic covalent bonds that can undergo exchange reactions when subjected to the proper external stimulus. The first epoxy vitrimers were developed by Leibler et al., using poly carboxylic acids as crosslinker and Zn+2 as catalysts.1 The thermally activated transesterifications between the 2-hydroxyesters obtained through the epoxy-carboxylic acid reaction allow the crack healing, reprocessing and recycling of these materials. Other catalysts such as guanidines,2 triphenylphosphine,2 1-methylimidazole3 and stannous octoate4 have also been used for epoxy vitrimers. In this work we present epoxy vitrimers catalyzed by covalently bonded tertiary amines, generated through the reaction of the epoxy resin with primary or secondary amines. The relations between the network structure, the amine substituents and the vitrimer properties were analyzed.