Imidazolium Phosphinate Ionic Liquids as Latent Curing Agents for Epoxy Resins
Latent imidazolium phosphinate ionic liquids (IMPILs) with innovative structures were developed as high-performance curing agents for one-component epoxy systems. These room-temperature liquid IMPILs exhibit exceptional compatibility with liquid epoxy resin (EP, E-51), overcoming the immiscibility limitations of conventional curing agents. These IMPILs efficiently cure EP (E-51) at moderate temperatures (109–180 °C) in the mass ratio range of 100:10–100:15, while maintaining storage stability with a 15-day pot life at 25 °C. The cured thermosets achieve impressive overall performance: tensile strength of 88 MPa (surpassing thermosets cured with 1-methylimidazole or 1,2-dimethylimidazole), good thermal stability (T10% = 374–407 °C), and unexpected flame retardancy (LOI = 30.7–35.1%, surpassing standard epoxy resins). This work establishes IMPILs as a novel class of liquid latent curing agents that satisfy both long-term storage requirements and excellent thermal-curing performance for advanced epoxy composites.
Authors
- Gary Histand (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1404-769X)
- Chen Tan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5398-2445)
- Dongen Lin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2994-9327)
- Tingting Xiao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6791-4603)
Institutions
- Key Laboratory of Guangdong Province (CN)
- South China University of Technology (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research
- Published
- 2025-04-09
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.iecr.5c00093
- Citations
- 8
- Primary Topic
- Epoxy Resin Curing Processes
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 5.71
Funders
- Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation of Guangdong Province