Hydrocurable ambient curing polyepoxide coating and adhesive compositions and method of using them

A method for making and using a hydrocurable polyepoxide composition containing a latent during agent which comprises mixing, in the absence of moisture, (1) an essentially anhydrous resin-forming polyepoxide containing at least two vic-epoxy groups and (2), as a latent curing agent for the polyepoxide, an anhydrous organic solvent solution copolymer comprising a vinyl addition copolymer containing units from a polyfunctional compound having at least two cyclic oxazolidinyl groups having the formula:

• ##STR9## wherein m is 2 or 3, and
• R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 are either separate alkyl groups, each having at least one carbon atom, or are joined directly together to form an alkylene group of 4 or 5 carbon atoms,
• the compound (2) containing no other amine nitrogen groups, and the amount of (2) being sufficient to provide at least about one equivalent of epoxy group for each equivalent of amine in (1), the composition, in the absence of moisture, being stable for months, and, optionally, mixing therewith any additional anhydrous ingredients that are inert to (1) and (2);
• storing the composition in tightly closed containers that serve to exclude water in liquid or vapor form, as in humid or moist ambient air, until the time of use or transport to the place of use;
• subsequently applying the composition by spreading a film of it over or on a surface to be coated, impregnated, or adhesively joined to another surface;
• and exposing the film, during or after its formation, to ambient moist air at ambient temperature and having a relative humidity of at least 20% to effect curing of the polyepoxide by reaction with the secondary amine formed by hydrolytic splitting of the oxazolidinyl ring in the latent curing agent (2).