Figure 2
From: Co-continuous network polymers using epoxy monolith for the design of tough materials
Porous structure (a–f) and mechanical and thermal properties (g,h) of the monolith sheets. (a) Appearance of epoxy monolith sheets. The thickness was 326 µm and 168 µm for the left and right images, respectively. The thin monolith sheet was foldable like paper. (b) 3D X-ray CT image of monolith sheet (M120A). (c) Cross-sectional images of monolith sheets with different monolith thicknesses (M120G and M130G). (d) Evaluation of local thickness of the epoxy skeleton for M120A, determined by fitting maximum spheres to the structure, according to the method described in the literature (ref. 45). The contribution due to the epoxy particles present in the pores was excluded during the estimation of the epoxy pillar thickness and the pore size. (e) Distribution of the monolith thickness for M120A (left figure). The blue and red curves in the right figure are the distribution for M120A with a fine structure and M120G with a coarse structure. (f) Vertical (left) and horizontal (right) cross-section images of M120A and the monolith occupancy as the function of the distance from the air-side surface (center). (g,h) Stress–strain curves of the tensile test and tanδ peaks from the DMA measurements for the monolith sheets with different coarseness (M120G, M120A, and M130G) and the bulk thermoset of E1.
