Synthesis of novel metal-containing epoxy polymers and their structural characterization by means of FT-IR and coupled TG/MS measurements

Novel copper containing epoxy polymers have been synthesized using copper(II) formamidine complex [Cu(ampf)Cl-2], ampf = N,N'-bis(4-acetyl-5-methylpyrazole-3-yl)formamidine, as curing agent for diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A-based epoxy resins (Araldite and its oligomer consisting of 3-4 monomer units). The curing reaction was performed at room temperature without catalyst. In order to prove the polymerization reaction, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was applied. Highly exothermic peaks around 150 A degrees C refer to the polymerization, and according to DSC results, the epoxy resins above 200 A degrees C were almost completely converted to the corresponding metal-containing polymer. The proposed structure of the hybrid polymers was confirmed by FT-IR analysis. Gel permeation chromatography analysis shows that the average molar masses of the polymers are in the range from 3,000 to 50,000 g mol(-1). The low conductivities of the hybrid materials in tetrahydrofuran confirm the non-ionic structure of the new polymers in solution. The thermal stability and the decomposition mechanism of the components of the reaction mixture and the new polymers were studied by coupled TG/DTA-MS measurements. The thermal data were analysed also with the aim to obtain additional information about the composition of the synthesized materials.