Thermoplastic modification of monomeric and partially polymerized Bisphenol A dicyanate ester

Bisphenol A dicyanate ester (BADCy) was modified with different amounts of an engineering thermoplastic, polysulfone (PS) to improve impact strength of the parent resin. Differential scanning calorimetry of the blends suggested that addition of PS widens the curing exotherm of the BADCy considerably. FTIR of cured neat resins indicated total conversion of cyanate functional groups into triazine rings by cyclotrimerization. The cured neat resins showed phase separated morphology with cyanate ester as the continuous phase. The modified resins were shown to have better thermal, hygrothermal and impact strength properties. However, when glass fiber reinforced composites were made using partially polymerized BADCy and PS, very little or no phase separation in the resin was noticed. Flexural and impact strength measurement of composites showed that PS modification has compromised the flexural properties and only retained the impact strength of the parent resin containing composite. This study thus suggests that improvements realized in thermoplastic modification of monomeric BADCy are not directly transferable to composites using a partially prepolymerized BADCy.