Lightly cross-linked resin materials
AssigneeShell Oil Company
InventorKenneth C. Dewhirst
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention relates to a new polymer composition having the processing characteristics of a thermosetting polymer along with an improved balance of properties including improved modulus/glass transition temperature/toughness balance. These new polymer compositions are prepared by reacting certain diphenolic compounds with certain diepoxide compounds to form linear units which are lightly crosslinked through the resulting secondary hydroxyl groups. Also disclosed and claimed are processes for preparing such compositions, cured compositions and end-use applications.
Claims29
A polymer composition comprising lightly crosslinked linear molecules having the repeating structures prior to crosslinking of the general formula:
- ##STR27## wherein said repeating structures are lightly crosslinked such that between 1 and 50 of said repeating structures per 100 total repeating structures are crosslinked to repeating structures of other molecules, and where:
- (a) "X" represents a segment comprising stiff units (SU) and optional flexible units (FU), which stiff units and flexible units are interconnected;
- (b) "Y" represents a segment comprising stiff units (SU') and optional flexible units (FU') which stiff units and flexible units are interconnected;
- (c) said stiff units, SU and SU', are independently selected from the group consisting of substituted and non-substituted aromatic rings and non-interferring heterocyclic rings;
- (d) said flexible units, FU and FU', are independenly selected from the group consisting of ##STR28## (e) the number of X segments in said molecules is "a", the number of y segments in said molecules is "b", the number of stiff units and flexible units is selected such that the average number of total stiff units ##EQU13## divided by the average number of total flexible units ##EQU14## is less than or equal to four;
- and (f) the ratio of the number of stiff units to flexible units in said X segment (SU/FU) is equal to or greater than the ratio of the number of stiff units to flexible units in said y segment (SU'/FU').
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.