Abstract
We tried to improve the fracture toughness by using an aromatic polyamide resin as a high molecular weight curing agent. With the addition of the aromatic polyamide, the heat stability of the cured epoxy resin increased beyond the additive low and fracture toughness simultaneously increased. It was considered that the improvement of the heat stability was due to the increase in the crosslinking density and the introduction of stiff aramid segment into epoxy networks.The fracture toughness was improved by an increase in the homogeneity of the micro-structure and the pinning effect of the rigid polyamide molecules introduced in the networks as an high molecular weight curing agent.
