Materials Sciences and Applications, 2011, 2, 1516-1519
doi:10.4236/msa.2011.210204 Published Online October 2011 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/msa)
Copyright © 2011 SciRes. MSA
A Comparative Study of Bisphenol-A, Hydantoin
and Cyanuric Acid Based Epoxy Resins
Using XRD
Sanjay Swarup
Coaching Institute, Agra, India.
Email: sanjayswarup@ymail.com
Received July 12th, 2011; revised August 4th, 2011; accepted September 4th, 2011.
ABSTRACT
To evaluate the efficiency of modified epoxy resins using bisphenol-A, hydantoin & cyanuric acid & to investigate the
structural change due to the presence of Nitrogen atoms in polymeric chain for improved insulating properties,
weatherability etc. The samples of epoxy resin bisphenol-A, hydantoin and Cyanuric acid based was taken for X-ray
diffraction analysis. The diffraction patterns were Fourier analysed to get an exact idea about the change in the poly-
mer structure. From X-ray diffraction analysis it was found that all physical parameters like area of cross section,
number of carbon atoms per entanglement, stiffness parameter, particle size, percentage crystallinity & electron density
fluctuation, in case of bisphenol-A based epoxy resin is more than other epoxy resins; that is; as the number of nitrogen
atoms increased, all the physical parameters were reduced. In the present study only X-ray diffraction patterns of
bisphenol-A, hydantoin and cyanuric acid based epoxy resins were studied. However their dielectric and ultrasonic
properties could also be studied to get more information about the structure. With the help of X-ray diffraction patterns,
one can easily check the synthesized samples of epoxy resins. The method to investigate the structural analysis of epoxy
resin was novel and could find numerous applications in surface coatings.
Keywords: X-Ray Diffraction, Epoxy Resins, Fourier Analysis, Crystallinity
1. Introduction
Polymers are usually amorphous in nature and it is diffi-
cult to interpret their detailed structure by methods like
U.V. and I.R. spectroscopy.
X-ray Diffraction has been successfully used in the
study of various structural aspects of amorphous poly-
mers [1], as carried out in the present research paper.
Recently Liang et al. [2] did XRD studies on polyacryl-
ics. Using XRD, the curing kinetics of epoxy resin was
studied by Wei-Bing et al. [3]. Epoxy resins are com-
pounds which contain the molecule more than one 1,2-
epoxy group capable of undergoing polyreaction referred
to as curing reactions [4]. Today epoxy resins are the
versatile and widely used polymers essential for the
various end uses of human civilization. The most widely
used epoxy resins are diglycidyl ethers of bisphenol-A
(DGEBA) derived from bisphenol-A and epichlorohydrin.
Recently, epoxy resins derived from heterocyclic com-
pounds have played a significant role showing good high
temperature performance, outdoor WEATHERABILITY
and insulating properties. A successful interpretation on
X-ray DIFFRACTION studies regarding the structure of
different resins was published earlier [5,6].
A constant search to get improved properties laid the
foundation of a new generation of epoxy resins based on
heterocyclic compounds consisting of hydantoin and
triazine nuclei. Hydantoin based epoxy resins have been
reported to provide increased pot life, chemical and sol-
vent resistance and low smoke generation during com-
bustion. Heat deflection temperature is significantly
higher than that for comparably cured conventional ep-
oxy resin [7]. Though conventionally used epoxy resins
provide good properties for electrical insulation, hydan-
toin based epoxy compositions have also been reported
as superior electrical insulators. In this series cyanuric
acid based epoxy resins have also been reported as good
electrical insulators due to their superior adhesion, ther-
mal, electrical and mechanical properties. Researchers
have developed many suitable formulations based on
A Comparative Study of Bisphenol-A, Hydantoin and Cyanuric Acid Based Epoxy Resins Using XRD1517
Figure 1. Hydantoin, showing the presence of 2N atoms in
its structure.
Figure 2. Cyanuric acid, showing the presence of 3N atoms
in its structure.
triazine epoxies in order to get good electrical insulation
properties.
It is known that hydantoin based epoxy resin contains
two nitrogen atoms in its structure as shown in Figure 1,
whereas cyanuric acid based epoxy resin contains three
nitrogen atoms as shown in Figure 2. The nitrogen con-
taining heterocycle provides the resin extensive variation
in polarity, melting point, viscosity and hydrophobicity
by the choice of alkyl group. It was therefore decided to
take the X-ray DIFFRACTION patterns of bisphenol-A,
hydantoin and cyanuric acid based epoxy resins for their
more detailed structural investigations.
The epoxide equivalent of all the three was found to be
200. The second section describes the theory used to
study these resins, the third section describes the experi-
mental set up. The fourth section presents the results and
discussions, and the fifth section gives the conclusion
made from the above study.
2. Theory
The X-ray diffraction patterns of bisphenol-A based,
hydantoin and Cyanuric acid based epoxy resins consist
of halos which confirm that these samples are amor-
phous. The definitions of different physical parameters
like, area of cross section, the stiffness parameter etc
are given in our earlier papers [5,6], where the use of
Boyer miller curves in estimating the different physical
parameters is also described. For obtaining more de-
tailed information about the structure of these resins,
the X-ray diffraction halo was Fourier analysed [8].The
theoretical derivation of correlation function is given in
our earlier paper [5,6]. However the experimental scat-
tering curve is given by
  

2
0
2
0
cos 2πd
d
Sl SxSS
x
Sl SS
where, γ(x) is the correlation function S is sin θ/λ, λ is the
wavelength of X-rays and θ is the angle of diffraction.
I(S) is the measured intensity.
The interchain separation (R) can be measured by [9]
the value of 2θ at which the intensity of the diffused halo
is maximum using the equation:
58 sinR
(1)
3. Experimental
The X-ray diffractometre of West German make was
employed to record the diffraction pattern from an X-ray
source emitting CuKα radiation. The pattern was ob-
tained on a strip chart recorder running at 30 mm/min
speed. The range of diffractometers recording angle lay
from five degree to 20 degree (2θ). This pattern was
symmetrised about the peak on the high angle side. The
different values of I & θ were subjected to a Fourier
analysis using a program written for this purpose. The
computer PDP 11/23 was used for this purpose. Figure 3
shows the diffraction patterns of bisphenol-A & Cyanuric
acid based epoxy resins. Figure 4 shows the position
correlation curves for these resins.
4. Results and Discussions
In Table 2 summarises the results of applying Boyer
miller method [10-12] to the X-ray diffraction halos of
bisphenol-A, hydantoin and Cyanuric acid based epoxy
resins. The method of determining the particle size and
electron density fluctuations for these resins (from the
position correlation curve) is given in our earlier paper
[5,6].
On comparing Tables 2 and 3 it was found that the
bisphenol-A based epoxy resin (Epon 1) has largest area
of cross-section, Nc, σ, particle size and electron density
fluctuations as compared to other resins (Epon 2 and
Epon 3). It is due to the absence of N atoms in bisphenol-
A based resin. As the number of N atoms increases, the
area of cross-section, the number of carbon atoms, stiff-
ness parameter, the particle size and finally the electron
density fluctuations decreases.
The presence of N atoms in the polymeric chain effects
the interchain separation (Table 4). As the number of Na-
toms increase, the interchain separation decreases.
In hydantoin based epoxy resin (Epon 2), there are 2N
atoms and hence, its physical parameters have lower
values as compared to Epon 1.
In cyanuric acid based epoxy resin (Epon 3), there are
3N atoms, reduces these physical parameters more as
Copyright © 2011 SciRes. MSA
A Comparative Study of Bisphenol-A, Hydantoin and Cyanuric Acid Based Epoxy Resins Using XRD
1518
Figure 3. It shows the XRD patterns of Epoxy resin & Cy-
anuric acid based Epoxy resin.
Figure 4. It shows the Fourier analysis of Epoxy resin &
Cyanuric acid based Epoxy resin.
Table 1. Epoxy resins & their code names; the present pa-
per reports the results of three epoxy resins shown in Table
1.
S.No. Epoxy resin Code name
1 Bisphenol-A based Epon 1
2 Hydantoin based Epon 2
3 Cyanuric acid based Epon 3
Table 2. Value of deff determined from the X-ray diffrac-
tions halo, and the corresponding cross-sectional area, the
number of carbon atoms per entanglement (Nc) & the stiff-
ness parameter (σ).
RESIN deff (nm)Area of cross-section(nm2) Nc σ
Epon 10.44 0.21 315 1.69
Epon 20.43 0.20 300 1.64
Epon 30.40 0.17 266 1.61
It is clear from this table that area of cross-section number of carbon atoms
per entanglement & stiffness parameter decreases as N-atoms increases in
epoxy resins.
Table 3. It collects the results obtained from the curves re-
lating position correlation with distance for different resins
studied in the present work.
Resin Particle size Electron density fluctuation
Epon 1 42 1.87
Epon 2 39 1.80
Epon 3 35 1.78
This table clearly indicates that as number of N-atoms increases, the particle
size & electron density fluctuation becomes minimum in epoxy resins.
Table 4. It collects the results of interchain separation (R)
(using Equation (1)) for different resins studied in the pre-
sent work.
Resin Interchain separation (R) (In A.U.)
Epon 1 0.55
Epon 2 0.53
Epon 3 0.50
This is clear from the table that interchain separation in case of cyanuric acid
based epoxy resin is msinimum as it has maximum number of N-atoms.
compared to Epon 1 and Epon 2. From above observa-
tions, it is thus clear that the increase of N atoms in ep-
oxy resins (studied in present paper) reduces its physical
parameters (obtained from X-ray diffraction analysis).
5. Conclusions
The different conclusions arising from the above study
are summarised below:
It is clear from our X-ray diffraction analysis that to
increase the polarity in an epoxy resin, it is essential to
reduce its area of cross-section, number of carbon atoms,
the stiffness parameter, the particle size and the electron
density fluctuations. The presence of N atoms plays an
important role for making an epoxy resin to be more in-
sulators. This increases also the other chemical properties
like outdoor weatherability etc. in epoxy resins. This also
Copyright © 2011 SciRes. MSA
A Comparative Study of Bisphenol-A, Hydantoin and Cyanuric Acid Based Epoxy Resins Using XRD
Copyright © 2011 SciRes. MSA
1519
concludes that the application of X-ray diffraction meas-
urements leads to the successful interpretation of the
structure of bisphenol-A, hydantoin and cyanuric acid
based epoxy resins in terms of the presence of N atoms in
their structure.
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