Two kinds of epoxy resin adduct polyols, named AE-51 and AE-46, respectively, were synthesized by the reaction of diethylamine with bisphenol-A type epoxy resin(E-51) or triethylene glycol type epoxy resin(EER-46), AE-51 o re AE-46 was used together with methacrylic acid (MAA) to form ionic bonds in well-defined polyrethane/graft vinly ester resin(PU/graft-VER) interpenetrating polymer networks (IPNs). Experimental results showed that the compatibility and/or the interpenetration between the PU network and the graft VER network were enhanced further for PU/graft-VER IPNs containing ionic bonds compared with that without ionic bonds. For IPNs containing ionic bonds, the ordered structure of PU hard segments in IPNs prepared from AE-51 was far more suppressed than that in IPNs prepared from AE-46. It was found that AE-51 was compatible with both PU hard segments and graft-VER due to the ionic bonds and similar bisphenol-A structures existed in PU and graft-VER network. These suggested that larger amounts of graft-VER could enter into PU hard segments so as to drastically suppress the ordered structures of hard segments in PU. The AE-46 existed in PU network, however, was mainly miscible with soft segments of PU because of its poly(oxylene)segments. In this case, the ordered structure of hard segments in PU was not affected appreciably by such a kind of IPNs. The results of mechanical test indicated that IPNs prepared from AE-51 showed higher tensile strength and lower elongation at break than the IPNs made from AE-46. All these different mechanical properties for IPNs studied could be correlated well with their morphologies.

Key words: POLYURETHANE, NETWORK POLYMER, EPOXY RESINS, MOPHOLOGY STRUCTURE, IONIC BONDS, BISPHENOL A