Sustainable, fire‐resistant phthalonitrile‐based glass fiber composites

The sustainable resveratrol-based phthalonitrile was used in the preparation of E-glass fiber-reinforced phthalonitrile composite panels fabricated by hot pressed prepreg consolidation with bis[4-(3-aminophenoxy)phenyl]sulfone (m-BAPS) as the curing additive. This amorphous monomer exhibited excellent viscosities at temperatures below 200 °C, which is applicable to standard processing conditions. Rheometric measurements were used to evaluate the cure of the composite as a function of the postcure conditions. The composite retains >95% of its room temperature storage modulus up to 450 °C based on these postcuring parameters. More importantly, flammability performance of the composite—which was determined in terms of ignitability, heat release, and mass loss rate—excels over other state-of-the-art polymer/glass composites. Even under the most extreme heat fluxes (e.g., 100 kW⋅m−2), the composite performs exceptionally well suggesting that resveratrol-based phthalonitrile composites can be used in fire-resistant applications. Published 2018. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2018