Nowadays, there are many application of epoxy resin, including coatings (ex: Anti Corrosive Epoxy, Epoxy Wearing Compound) , metal bonding (ex: Aluminum adhesive), use in electronics / electrical components, high tension electrical insulators, fiber-reinforced plastic materials and concrete crack repair (ex: Epoxy-Repair Cracks), and structural adhesives (ex: Chemical Anchor), house repair for wall, stone, steel (ex: Epoxy Putty Stick)....etc.
Even, it is employed to bind gutta percha in some root canal procedures.
It seem to Epoxy Resin is such a useful chemical which can be applied for various types of industries.
Then you may be interested in who invent the Epoxy Resin? When? How?
Let's us to know what is the history of Epoxy Resin.
History
The first commercial attempts to prepare resins from epichlorohydrin were made in 1927 in the United States. Credit for the first synthesis of bisphenol-A-based epoxy resins is shared by Dr. Pierre Castan of Switzerland and Dr. S.O. Greenlee of the United States in 1936. Dr. Castan’s work was licensed by Ciba, Ltd. of Switzerland, which went on to become one of the three major epoxy resin producers worldwide. Ciba’s epoxy business was spun off and later sold in the late 1990s and is now the Advanced Materials business unit of Huntsman Corporation of the United States. Dr. Greenlee’s work was for the firm of Devoe-Reynolds of the United States. Devoe-Reynolds, which was active in the early days of the epoxy resin industry, was sold to Shell Chemical (now Momentive Specialty Chemicals, formerly Hexion, Resolution Polymers and others).Epoxy resin chemistry
Epoxy resins are low molecular weight pre-polymers or higher molecular weight polymers which normally contain at least two epoxide groups. The epoxide group is also sometimes referred to as a glycidyl or oxirane group.
A wide range of epoxy resins are produced industrially. The raw materials for epoxy resin production are today largely petroleum derived, although some plant derived sources are now becoming commercially available (e.g. plant derived glycerol used to make epichlorohydrin).
Epoxy resins are polymeric or semi-polymeric materials, and as such rarely exist as pure substances, since variable chain length results from the polymerisation reaction used to produce them. High purity grades can be produced for certain applications, e.g. using a distillation purification process. One downside of high purity liquid grades is their tendency to form crystalline solids due to their highly regular structure, which require melting to enable processing.
n important criterion for epoxy resins is the epoxide content. This is commonly expressed as the epoxide number, which is the number of epoxide equivalents in 1 kg of resin (Eq./kg), or as the equivalent weight, which is the weight in grams of resin containing 1 mole equivalent of epoxide (g/mol). One measure may be simply converted to another:
Equivalent weight (g/mol) = 1000 / epoxide number (Eq./kg)
The equivalent weight or epoxide number is used to calculate the amount of co-reactant (hardener) to use when curing epoxy resins. Epoxies are typically cured with stoichiometric or near-stoichiometric quantities of curative to achieve maximum physical properties.
As with other classes of thermoset polymer materials, blending different grades of epoxy resin, as well as use of additives, plasticizers or fillers is common to achieve the desired processing and/or final properties, or to reduce cost. Use of blending, additives, and fillers is often referred to as formulating.
Reference: https://bioplasticsnews.com/epoxy/
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