ABSTRACT
The useful properties of epoxy resins appear only after curing. The curing step transforms the epoxy from a low-molecular-weight material to a highly crosslinked space network. The network is composed of segments involving both the epoxy monomer and the crosslinking agent. Thus in even the simplest formulation, the chemical and physical properties of the cured resin are influenced by the separate chemistries and structures of the diepoxide or polyepoxide monomer and the polyfunctional crosslinking agent. When the molecular weights of both coreactants of the cured resin are high enough to provide more than four chain atoms between junction points, the resultant network begins to display the properties of a three-dimensional block copolymer.
