Effects of various process variables on resin characteristics of brominated epoxy polymers

Abstract Brominated epoxy polymers (BEPs) were prepared by condensing epichlorhydrin (ECH) with bisphenol-A (BPA) and tetrabromobisphenol-A (TBBPA). The effects of process variables such as mole ratio of ECH to the mixture of BPA and TBBPA, temperature, time of reaction and mole ratio of catalyst to the mixture of BPA and TBBPA were studied, considering the yield, epoxy content, hydrolysable chlorine content and oxirane oxygen of the BEP. Mathematical models have been derived to provide readily calculable parameters to obtain BEPs with optimum yield and low hydrolysable chlorine content. The calculated values derived from the model have been found to be close to the experimental results.