Synthesis and characterization of bisimide amines and bisimide amine-cured epoxy resins

A study has been conducted with the objective of developing tough, moisture resistant, high char yield epoxy resins using novel bisimide amine (BIA) hardeners as curing agents with MY-720, a commercial state-of-the-art epoxy resin system. BIA cured epoxies are shown to have lower moisture absorption than MY-720 and other state-of-the-art epoxy resins; the tensile strengths and strain-to-failures of several of the bisimide epoxy resins (IME's) are higher than those of the state-of-the-art epoxies. Most IME's have compression properties equivalent to those of state-of-the-art epoxies. Two resin systems, IME-10 and IME-12-3, have better overall properties than other resin systems investigated.