• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.180-183
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• 2003

In this work. a potential inexpensive epoxy resin. epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) was synthesized and applied as a toughening agent for 4.4'-tetradiglycidyl diaminodiphenyl methane (TGDDM). The chemical structure of ESO was characterized by FT-IR, $^1H NMR, and ^{13}C NMR$ spectroscopy. The curing behaviors. thermal stabilities. fracture toughness. and flexural strength of TGDDM/ESO blend systems were investigated by using the dynamic DSC. thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). and flexural tests. The thermal stabilities of TGDDM/ESO blend systems were decreased with increasing ESO contents. whereas the critical stress intensity factor ($K_{IC}$) and flexural strength ($\sigma_f$) were increased with ESO contents up to 10 wt% ESO.