Abstract

Multifunctional epoxy resins are prepared by reacting (1) a polyglycidyl ether of a polyhydroxyl-containing material said glycidyl ether having an average of at least 0.05 aliphatic hydroxyl group per molecule and an average of more than one glycidyl ether group per molecule such as a diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A, (2) a hydrolyzed monoglycidyl ether of a material having one aromatic hydroxyl group such as hydrolyzed phenyl glycidyl ether or one aliphatic hydroxyl group such as hydrolyzed butyl glycidyl ether, (3) a hydrolyzed glycidyl ether of a material having an average of more than one aromatic hydroxyl group per molecule such as hydrolyzed diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A or an average of more than one aliphatic hydroxyl group per molecule such as hydrolyzed cyclohexanedimethanol diglycidyl ether, (4) the reaction product of monoglycidyl ether with a polyphenolic compound, or (5) a combination of (1), (2), (3) or (4) with an epihalohydrin such as epichlorohydrin and dehydrohalogenating the resultant halohydrin ether intermediate product with a suitable dehydrohalogenating agent such as sodium hydroxide. These epoxy resins when cured with a suitable curing agent such as methylene dianiline result in an improvement in one or more properties such as toughness, heat distortion temperature, glass transition temperature, acid resistance or the like.