Synthesis of reaction promoters for epoxy polymerization: Enhancing storage stability and mechanical properties of one-pot epoxy systems

One-pot epoxy formulations, containing uncured resin, curing agent, and promoter, require the promoter to be insoluble in the resin at room temperature to prevent premature polymerization. Here, we introduce three novel reaction promoters synthesized by reacting amino propyl imidazole (API) and various diisocyanates such as HMDI, IPDI, or MDI. We evaluate the impact of these promoters on the physical properties, storage stability, and curing kinetics of the resulting epoxy formulations. The results of the kinetic study showed that the compositions containing each synthesized promoter acted as reaction promoters, as evidenced by the lower activation energy in the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) experiment. The results of the mechanical properties showed that HMDI-API promoter improved both tensile and flexural strength, while exhibiting high storage stability. The findings provide valuable insights for selecting suitable promoters for specific applications in one-pot epoxy systems.