Hydrogen Bonding-Rich Bio-Benzoxazine Resin Provides High-Performance Thermosets and Ultrahigh-Performance Composites
Rui Yang, Richie Yang, Shengfu Yang, Kan Zhang
Abstract
Producing thermosetting polymers using natural renewable resources has attracted great attention due to the requirement of sustainable development for human beings. Herein, we represent our design of a novel biobased thermosetting resin ( KAE-fa ) containing a polymerizable oxazine ring and a furan group derived from renewable kaempferol and furfurylamine. The distinctive presence of rich intra- and intermolecular hydrogen bonds within KAE-fa imparts it with thermal latent polymerization characteristic, long shelf life, and exceptional high performance of its resulting polybenzoxazine. Notably, the resulting thermoset, poly(KAE-fa), demonstrates a substantially high glass transition temperature ( T g ) of 304 °C, an impressively elevated char yield (in N 2 ) of 63%, and an extraordinarily low heat release capacity of 10.12 J·g –1 ·K –1 . In addition, KAE-fa has also been utilized to fabricate a carbon fiber-reinforced composite [ CF/poly(KAE-fa) ]. Employing this newly obtained high-performance bioresin as the matrix, CF/poly(KAE-fa) exhibits a remarkable property enhancement. For instance, CF/poly(KAE-fa) shows 108, 28, and 82.7% increases in T g, tensile strength, and Young’s modules (room temperature), respectively, compared with the carbon fiber-reinforced BA-a composite [CF/poly(BA-a)]. These advantages underscore the great potential of using renewable bioresins for developing both high-performance thermosets and composites with key applications spanning from transportation to aerospace.