The toughness of epoxy-poly(butylene terephthalate) blends

Abstract

Blends containing 5% poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) in an anhydride-cured epoxy with three different PBT morphologies were studied. The three morphologies were a dispersion of spherulites, a structureless gel and a gel with spherulites. The average fracture toughnesses, K _Ic, and fracture energies, G _Ic, for those morphologies were 0.83, 2.3 and 1.8 MPa m^1/2 and 240, 2000 and 1150 J m⁻², respectively. These values should be compared with the values of 0.72 MPa m^1/2 and 180 J m⁻², respectively, for the cured epoxy without PBT. The elastic moduli and yield strengths in compression for all three blend morphologies remained essentially unchanged from those of the cured epoxy without PBT, namely, 2.9 GPa for the modulus and 115 MPa for the yield strength. The fracture surfaces of the cured spherulitic dispersion blends indicate the absorption of fracture energy by crack bifurcation induced by the spherulites. The fracture surfaces of the cured structureless gel blends indicate that fracture energy was absorbed by matrix and PBT plastic deformation and by spontaneous crack bifurcation. But phase transformation of the PBT and anelastic strain of the matrix below the fracture surfaces may account for most of the large fracture energy of the cured structureless gel blends.