Effect of dimethylpolysiloxane liquid on the cryogenic tensile strength and thermal contraction behavior of epoxy resins

•The epoxy resin blend contains siloxane liquid and silicone-modified epoxy resin.•The liquid has no detrimental influence on the viscosity and CTE of the blend.•The blended resin shows dramatic enhancement of the tensile strength at 77 K.•The improvement is caused by controlling the droplet size of the siloxane liquid.

Dimethylpolysiloxane liquid was blended with diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A epoxy resin including anhydride curing agent to improve the tensile strength of the epoxy resin at 77 K without any increase in its coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE). A bifunctional polymer, silicone-modified epoxy resin (SME), was also added to the mixture as a compatibilizer. The results of UV transmittance for the blend resin showed that the incorporation of the SME could stabilize effectively spherical domains of the siloxane liquid which was immiscible with the epoxy matrix. The tensile strengths of the blend resins at both room temperature and 77 K were measured and SEM analysis for the fractured cross sections was carried out to verify the toughening behavior of the liquid droplets. The results indicated that even small amount of addition of the siloxane liquid (0.05 phr) coupled with SME (20 phr) could enhance the tensile strength at 77 K by 77.6% compared to that of the neat epoxy resin. This improvement is attributed to the fact that the solid and s droplets can disperse the localized stress and interrupt the crack propagation by cavitation mechanism followed by multiple generation of numerous micro-deformation. From the CTE measurement, the siloxane liquid has no influence on the thermal contraction behavior of the blend resin.