Curing of bisphenol M dicyanate ester under nanoscale constraint

It is well known that the properties of materials are affected by constraint at the nanoscale. Although thermosetting resins have been cured in the presence of nanoparticles and nanotubes, cure of thermosetting resins under the well defined nanoscale constraints imposed by controlled pore glass (CPG) or similar matrices has not been previously documented. In this work, we investigate the isothermal curing of bisphenol M dicyanate ester/polycyanurate under various nanoscale constraints, including in unsilanized controlled pore glass, in silanized controlled pore glass, and within an alumina nanofilter. Differential scanning calorimeter is used to monitor the evolution of the glass transition temperature (T_g) as a function of pore size and pore surface chemistry. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) is applied to study the degree of cure of polycyanurate in the bulk state and under nanoscale confinement. For the glass transition temperatures of the polycyanurate networks cured in the silanized controlled pore glasses, only the nanoconfinement effect is observed; whereas for the material cured in the unsilanized controlled pore glasses, both the nanoconfinement and surface effects are observed. Furthermore, nanoscale constraint accelerates the cure of bisphenol M dicyanate ester. FTIR study confirms the full conversion of the polycyanurate networks under nanoscale confinement.