A renewable bio-based epoxy resin with improved mechanical performance that can compete with DGEBA

The aim of this study is to find a suitable substitution for diglycidyl ether bisphenol A (DGEBA) to avoid the devastating side effects of bisphenol A. Vanillin, an aromatic compound, was used as a renewable material to synthesize a bio-based epoxy resin. The structure of the vanillin-based epoxy resin was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis. The major drawback of bio-based epoxy resins is their poor mechanical properties preventing them from competing with petroleum based epoxy resins such as DGEBA. Herein, a prepared calcium nitrate solution as an inorganic accelerator was used to accelerate the curing reaction of bio-based epoxy resin which reduced curing times as well as improving significantly the mechanical properties e.g., tensile strength, pull-off strength, and Izod impact strength. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis was used to investigate the curing process and thermal properties of the vanillin-based epoxy resin with and without inorganic accelerators and also DGEBA without accelerators. The results showed that in the presence of 2 wt% inorganic accelerator, the initial onset curing temperature of vanillin-based epoxy resin was reduced from 60.1 °C to 8.5 °C, while the initial onset curing temperature of DGEBA was 55.8 °C. In addition, tensile strength and Izod impact strength of the vanillin-based epoxy system in the presence of inorganic accelerators increased in comparison to the DGEBA system. Moreover, in order to study the effect of inorganic accelerators on the toughness of the synthesized vanillin-based epoxy resin, fracture surfaces from Izod impact strength tests were observed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) which confirmed improving mechanical properties.