Radical induced Cationic Frontal Polymerization as a Versatile Tool for Epoxy Curing and Composite Production

Abstract

Radical induced cationic frontal polymerization (RICFP) is an extremely powerful and elegant alternative curing technique that allows cationic bulk curing of epoxy resins with very little energy consumption, as well as curing in compart-
ments that are not readily accessible. We recently introduced a bisphenol-A diglycidylether (BADGE) based system that allows the bubble-free photocuring of this widely used epoxy resin. In this article, we describe the high storage stability and possibili-ties to influence the curing speed via the initiator concentra-
tions of different formulations. These properties allow the adjustment of the frontal polymerization to ones need. We also show that the (thermo)mechanical and electrical properties of frontal cured epoxy polymers compares favorably with those of state of the art material. Finally, different strategies to over-
come the challenges on producing epoxy resin based mica
composites via RICFP are presented.