Effects of Epoxy Composition on the Thermal and Network Properties of Crosslinked Thermosets: A Molecular-Dynamics Study

TL;DR

This study uses molecular dynamics simulations to analyze how varying epoxy resin compositions affect the thermal and structural properties of crosslinked networks, revealing composition-dependent network loosening and property changes.

Contribution

It introduces a confinement index to quantify local network effects and correlates it with glass-transition temperature, providing new molecular-level insights.

Findings

Increasing BER content loosens the network structure.

Looser networks have higher thermal expansion and atomic mobility.

The confinement index predicts glass-transition temperature trends.

Abstract

In this study, we investigate the influence of resin composition on the thermal and structural properties of crosslinked epoxy networks using molecular-dynamics simulations. The systems studied are based on mixtures of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) and butylated epoxy resin (BER), cured with diethyltoluenediamine (DETDA). A multi-step crosslinking algorithm was used to generate highly crosslinked networks. We systematically explored how the addition of BER affects the network topology and thermophysical behavior of the resulting thermosets. Our results show that increasing BER content leads to a progressive loosening of the network, evidenced by longer inter-nitrogen path lengths and larger Voronoi atomic volumes. This structural loosening results in a higher coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) and higher atomic mobility as well as a reduction in the glass-transition temperature. To quantify local steric and topological effects, we introduce a confinement index that captures atomic-level crowding and connectivity. The index shows a strong correlation with the observed trend in glass-transition temperature, suggesting its potential as a predictive descriptor for polymer network behavior. Our findings provide molecular-level insights into how epoxy resin composition modulates network structure and thermomechanical properties.