CO2 modified multifunctional epoxy as a route to control microstructure

Materials performing two or more function simultaneously, multifunctional materials, are receiving an increased amount of attention as they can bring weight/volume saving into the devices. The examples is multifunctional electrolytes (ME), i.e. electrolytes that possess a combination of high ionic conductivity and mechanical properties. They are specifically designed to be used as matrices in multifunctional composites, i.e. electrolytes in structural supercapacitors. The ME with bicontinuous structure, in which one phase is responsible for the mechanical performance and another for the ion conduction, showed the best combination of these two properties. However, the structure formation is strongly dependent on the composition of the formulations and there is still not sufficient understanding of the mechanisms of the structure formation, especially those based on the epoxy resin(s). Previously using SANS we showed that the addition of the effect of the specially designed block-copolymer (BC) on microstructure formation in the epoxy+ionic liquid based formulations. The proposed experiment will look at an alternative to the BC for epoxy based formulations. A multifunctional (tri oxirane rings) epoxy (TMP) which was reacted with the CO2 to convert one or more oxirane rings to the carbonate rings (mTMP) will be studied. The effect of the TMP and mTMP addition on the curing kinetic and microstructure formation of the epoxy+IL formulations at r.t. and 60°C will be evaluated.