A self-assembled nanostructure from an amphiphilic aromatic polyester containing siloxane and poly(phenylene oxide) in epoxy resin

A novel amphiphilic aromatic polyester (PPM) containing polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and poly(phenylene oxide) (PPO) was synthesized by one-pot polymerization and characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). PPM was self-assembled in the epoxy resin (ER) to form different nanophase separation structures, and the internal and surface morphology evolution was observed by transmission electron microscope (TEM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM), respectively. The morphology of the nano-microphase was interconnected from spherical particles to “neuron” structures, and transformed into a worm-like structure, which toughened and strengthened the epoxy matrix without sacrificing its glass transition temperature ( T g ). It has been verified by fracture toughness investigation ( K IC ), dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMA) and differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) that the K IC , storage modulus and the T g of nanodomain thermosets was increased by 90.0%, 86.9% and 8.7 °C compared with neat ER.