Abstract
Recently, the Federal EPA increased legislation to address hazardous emissions from composite manufacturing and repair by enacting new emission standards, which specifically targets styrene as a regulated hazardous air pollutant (HAP). One method of reducing styrene emissions from vinyl ester (VE) resins is to replace some or all of the styrene with fatty acid-based monomers. Fatty acid (FA) monomers are ideal candidates because they are inexpensive and have low volatilities. Two successful fatty acid monomers have been prepared: methacrylate terminated fatty acids and acrylated fatty acid methyl esters. The viscosity of VE resins using these fatty acid monomers range from 700-2000 cP, which is considerably higher than that of VE/styrene resins (∼100 cP). In addition, the T g and moduli of VE/FA polymers are only on the order of 80°C and 1.5 GPa, which are significantly lower than that of VE/styrene polymers. Decreasing the length of the base fatty acid chains from 18 to 12 carbon atoms improved the T g and modulus by 20°C and 0.5 GPa, respectively, while lowing the resin viscosity from ∼2500 cP to ∼1000 cP. Ternary blends of VE, styrene, and fatty acid monomers have also effectively improved the polymer properties and reduced the resin viscosity to acceptable levels, while using lower than 20 wt% styrene, far less than commercial VE resins.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 106-118 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | International SAMPE Symposium and Exhibition (Proceedings) |
| Volume | 48 I |
| State | Published - 2003 |
| Externally published | Yes |
| Event | Advancing Materials in the Global Economy - Applications, Emerging Markets and Evolving Technologies - Long Beach, CA, United States Duration: May 11 2003 → May 15 2003 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Materials Science(all)
- Mechanics of Materials
- Mechanical Engineering