Synthesis and characterization of nanocomposites based on furan resins

RIVERO GUADALUPE; PETTARIN VALERIA; MANFREDI LILIANA; VÁZQUEZ ANALÍA

San Sebastián, España

Conferencia; V International Conference on Science and Technology of Composite Materials - 8° Congreso Nacional de Materiales Compuestos (COMATCOMP2009); 2009

Universidad del País Vasco

Furan resins obtained from furfural and phenol were synthesized to obtain a resin to be used as metal coating or matrix of composite materials. These resins should have similar properties to the phenolic resins because they are obtained by the replacement of formaldehyde with furfural. So, it should be possible to obtain a material with an excellent thermical and oxidative resistance but reducing the formaldehyde emissions, which is a dangerous contaminant. Moreover, the addition of nanoparticles to the furan resin should enhance their performance. The synthesis and characterization of a furan resin obtained from phenol and furfural was made in this work. Nanocomposites were obtained by the in-situ addition of different type of clays to the resin. The prepolymer formation reactions were studied by infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and the variation of the viscosity with the time was measured. It was observed that the addition of clay to the resin fasten the formation of the prepolymer. The prepolymer was then cured using hexamethylenetetramine as catalyst. The chemical structure of the cured materials was studied by FTIR. It was concluded that the type of clay has an important influence on the final structure of the resin. It could be due to the compatibility among the surfactants of the clay with the resin. The cure kinetics of the furan resin and their composites was characterized by differential scanning calorimetry. Free kinetic models were applied and the values of the activation energy were obtained and compared.