Studies on the properties of epoxy resins cured with polythiourethanes

Abstract New mercaptan-terminated polythiourethanes were applied as curing agents for epoxy resin. The formulation studied consisted of a diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A epoxy resin, polythiourethane curing agent accelerated with primary or tertiary amine. The coating performance of the resins was tested by measurements of scratch resistance, pencil hardness, flexibility, adhesion and chemical resistance. The results show better properties of the polythiourethane-cured resin compared to standard epoxy formulation. It is observed that evaluation of the physico-mechanical and chemical resistance performance shows better results with the increased loading of polythiourethane hardener. In addition, polythiourethane hardeners revealed high reactivity toward curing of epoxy resins at low-temperature conditions (−10 °C). Polythiourethane-cured epoxy resins, thus stand as an effective surface coating material where high performance is needed in terms of physico-mechanical properties as well as chemical resistance.