Flexible - bendable - versatile - tough: A new epoxy resin

 
Our regional R&D hub for CTP Advanced Materials GmbH in Rüsselsheim, Germany, synthesized and tested a new and very versatile epoxy-building block to improve the flexibility of coatings without compromising on hardness. The development was carried out in Germany, scale up and production are done in Rayong, Thailand, as we are part of Aditya Birla Advanced Materials. We will present the structure and coating formulations of different applications with relevant data for general and mechanical properties with CTP 620 R as blends with standard liquid epoxy resin grades as well as standalone epoxy component. We investigated the new building block in combination with a standard BPA-resin as well as a reactively diluted BPA/BPF-resin, with two different amine hardeners. With 20 w% or 40 w% CTP 620 R of the epoxy component, we observe an improved flexibility, but no significant effect on pendulum- or shore-D-hardness, and only a slight reduction of glass transition temperature of the coatings. Evaluation of shore-D hardness over several days reveals a slower curing speed, which we expected due to the aliphatic epoxy groups in the new building block.