New epoxy with self-repairing properties of environmental-friendly building structure adhesives

Abstract

With the rapid increase in newly constructed buildings, the number of old buildings that need reinforcement and repair also increases due to aging, accidental damage, or modernization refurbishment. Likewise, the demand of the building adhesive keeps growing with the expansion of its application scope. However, because of the recognition of many demerits of the existing epoxy building adhesives (e.g., low bonding strength, high frangibility, and low elasticity modulus), the need for a new environment-friendly building structure adhesive has been growing steadily. In this paper, the potential of nano-scaled rubber (VP-501: diameter of ~70 nm) was investigated with respect to its capacity to enhance the capacity of the epoxy resin with respect to the static tensile, fracture toughness, and dynamic mechanical properties. Further, its effects on the thermal stability and glass-transition temperature change were also examined with the content of toughening agent. Our discussion was extended further to describe the mechanism under which the toughness and heat resistance of the modified epoxy resin are improved.