What Happens to Epoxy on a Copper Surface?
Thermosetting resins such as epoxies are commonplace as structural adhesives.
How do epoxy and a curing agent form a 3D network on a metallic surface?
A group of authors from various universities in Japan, including BIOVIA’s Riichi Kuwahara, published a paper “Molecular Events for an Epoxy-Amine System at a Copper Interface” in the ACS Applied Polymer Materials journal to help answer this question.
The team used BIOVIA Materials Studio to construct realistic models of epoxy on a copper surface, and to look into atomistic details of the network formation. Their findings and methodology will help in future searches for better adhesives.
How Can You Make a Resin Network More Rigid?
A large group of scientists in Japan and the USA, including BIOVIA’s Riichi Kuwahara, have taken an important step towards answering this question.
Their paper “Molecular dynamics simulation of cross-linking processes and material properties for epoxy resins using first-principle calculation combined with global reaction route mapping algorithms” was published in the Chemical Physics Letters journal.
It shows how to combine atomistic modelling tools to predict properties of epoxy resins.
They used the BIOVIA Materials Studio Forcite module to determine resin density
The main conclusion is that the base resin with multi-functional reaction groups produces higher glass-transition temperature and higher Young’s modulus because of cross-linking at the molecular scale.
This work fine-tunes a complex workflow that combines quantum chemistry and classical molecular dynamics for prediction of properties of thermosetting resins.
