Effect of Aromatic Substitution On the Kinetics and Properties of Epoxy Cured Tri-phenylether Amines

The reaction kinetics and structure property relationships of isomeric tri‐aromatic ether‐linked amines based on the structure bis (aminophenoxy) benzene, cured with diglycidyl ether of bisphenol F (BisF) are investigated in this study. Reaction kinetics are explored using rheological and calorimetric measurements, whereas structure property relationships are determined from their flexural properties, dynamic mechanical properties (DMTA), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). A BisF network cured with 4,4 diamino diphenyl sulphone (44 DDS) is used as a benchmark to represent a commercially available high‐performance resin system. Varying the substitution of the ether linkages on the aromatic groups from ortho, meta to para was found to have a significant impact on reactivity and network properties after cure. The variations are explained in terms of inductive and resonance effects primarily acting on the outer aromatic rings. Interestingly, however, these same effects acting on the central aromatic ring also impact upon reactivity despite their proximity from the amines. Mechanical and thermal properties are explained by changes in the short‐range molecular mobility within the network architecture such as phenylene rotations or π flips and are experimentally validated from the breadth and position of the subambient γ relaxations. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019, 136, 47383