Introduction to Rubber toughened Epoxy Polymers
Epoxy resins are a class of thermosetting polymers widely used for structural application. However, as epoxy resins are inherently brittle because of their highly cross linked structure, a great effort has been made to improve the S. A. Xu Department of Polymer Engineering and Science, School of Materials Science and Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, China e mail: saxu@ecust.edu.cn X. X. Song School of Materials Science and Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, China e mail: sxx0131@126.com Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 J. Parameswaranpillai et al. (eds. Handbook of Epoxy Blends, DOI 10.1007/978 3 319 18158 5_1 1 1 fracture toughness. A widely used method for this purpose is the addition of second phase polymeric particles, and over the past decades, great success has been achieved in this area. This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of the development in rubber toughened epoxy. First, we review the history of rubber toughened epoxy and different kinds of rubbers used for toughening epoxy. Then, we summarize the factors affecting the toughening effect and mechanisms accounting for rubber toughened epoxy. Finally, we discuss some new trends in this field.