Cerium Salts: An Efficient Curing Catalyst for Benzoxazine Based Coatings

Tao Zhang; Leïla Bonnaud; Jean-Marie Raquez; Marc Poorteman; Marjorie Olivier; Philippe Dubois

doi:10.3390/polym12020415

Cerium Salts: An Efficient Curing Catalyst for Benzoxazine Based Coatings

Polymers (Basel). 2020 Feb 11;12(2):415. doi: 10.3390/polym12020415.

Authors

Tao Zhang^{1

2}, Leïla Bonnaud¹, Jean-Marie Raquez¹, Marc Poorteman³, Marjorie Olivier³, Philippe Dubois¹

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Polymeric and Composite Materials, Center of Innovation and Research in Materials and Polymers (CIRMAP), Materia Nova Research Center & University of Mons, 23 Place du Parc, B-7000 Mons, Belgium.
² Department of Visual Communication Design, School of Art & Design, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China.
³ Department of Materials Science, Materials Engineering Research Center (CRIM), University of Mons, 23 Place du Parc, B-7000 Mons, Belgium.

Abstract

The effect of three different cerium salts (Ce(NO₃)₃.6H₂O, CeCl₃.7H₂O and Ce(OOCCH₃)₃.5H₂O) on the ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of a model diamine-based benzoxazine (4EP-pPDA) was investigated. With the incorporation of the cerium salts, the curing temperature of 4EP-pPDA is reduced substantially, and the glass transition temperatures of the resulting networks are increased significantly. The three cerium salts exhibit different catalytic activities, which were analyzed by FT-IR, NMR, and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX). Ce(NO₃)₃.6H₂O was found to exhibit the best catalytic effect, which seems to be related to its better dispersibility within 4EP-pPDA benzoxazine precursors.

Keywords: ROP; benzoxazine; catalyst; cerium salt; low curing temperature.