• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.246-253
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• 2001

Amino terminated PES-CTBN-PES triblock copolymer was synthesized from PES oligomer and commercial CTBN rubber (CTBN1300$\times$13), and molecular weight of the copolymer was controlled to be 15000 g/mole. The copolymer was utilized to toughen diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A (DGEBA) epoxy resin which was cured with 4,4'-diaminodi-phenylsulfone (DDS) and subjected to the measurement of thermal properties, fracture toughness ( $K_{IC}$), flexural properties and solvent resistance. The properties were compared with those from the samples modified by CTBN/PES blends. The maximum loading of copolymer into the epoxy resin was 40 wt% without utilizing solvent, at which $K_{IC}$ fracture toughness of 2.21 MPa${\cdot}m^{0.5}$ was obtained without sacrificing flexural properties and chemical resistance. However, the epoxy resin modified with PES/CTBN blend exhibited much lower $K_{IC}$ and flexural properties compared to the epoxy resins toughened by PES-CTBN-PES copolymers.