Pultruded fibre-reinforced furfuryl alcohol resin composites: 1. Process feasibility study

Furfuryl alcohol (FA) prepolymer was developed to fabricate pultruded fibre-reinforced FA resin composites. FA monomer with p-toluene sulfonic acid was used to synthesize the FA prepolymer, which provided a good balance between processing parameters (including pot life, reactivity and wetting ability) and properties of the composites. The reactions occurring during synthesis of the FA prepolymers and the post-curing treatment were investigated by ¹H n.m.r. and i.r. spectroscopies. It was found that the mechanical properties of the composites increase with increasing die temperature or decreasing pulling rate. From the study on the mechanical properties of the composites, it was found that an optimum post-cure time exists when the post-cure temperature is above 200°C. It was also found that three kinds of reaction - crosslinking, chain extension polymerization and the transformation of the methylene ether linkage to a methylene linkage -occur during the post-curing treatment.