Simultaneously increasing cryogenic strength, ductility and impact resistance of epoxy resins modified by n-butyl glycidyl ether

Epoxy resins are increasingly used in cryogenic engineering areas due to rapid developments of spacecraft and superconducting cable technologies as well as large cryogenic engineering projects (e.g., International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor). Cryogenic mechanical properties are important parameters for epoxy resins to be employed in such areas. In this paper, a traditional reactive aliphatic diluent, namely n-butyl glycidyl ether (BGE, JX-013) with a low viscosity, was used to modify diethyl toluene diamine (DETD)-cured diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-F (DGEBF) epoxy system for enhancing cryogenic mechanical properties at liquid nitrogen temperature (77 K). The results showed that the cryogenic strength, ductility and impact resistance (impact strength) have been simultaneously enhanced by the addition of BGE with appropriate contents. Moreover, the comparison of the mechanical properties between 77 K and room temperature (RT) indicated that at the same composition, the tensile strength and Young's modulus at 77 K were higher than those at RT but the failure strain and impact resistance showed the opposite results. Finally, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) exhibited that the glass transition temperatures (Tg) of the epoxy resins decreased with increasing the BGE content.