Epoxy resins are widely used in a variety of application fields, thanks to their good mechanical strength, chemical resistance and adhesion to several substrates. Nowadays, the quite majority of epoxy resins are based on derivatives of bisphenol A (BPA), which poses serious health concerns. This issue is pushing the research towards suitable bio-based alternatives to this product, being furan-based epoxies very promising in this respect. In a previous work, 2,5-bis[(oxiran-2-ylmethoxy)methyl]furan (BOMF) was cured with methyl nadic anhydride (MNA), and successfully used as tinplate coating. Herein, in a view of increasing the sustainability of these epoxy resins, we have replaced MNA with maleic anhydride (MA), which can be derived from vegetable feedstocks, thus obtaining a fully bio-based epoxy resin. This latter has then been used as adhesive for carbon fiber-reinforced thermosetting plastics (CFRP). The curing process of the resin was monitored by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and chemo-rheological analysis. The results highlighted the significantly higher reactivity of BOMF towards MA compared to the diglycidyl ether of BPA (DGEBA). The crosslinked samples were characterized in their thermal, mechanical and adhesive properties. In comparison to DGEBA/MA and BOMF/MNA, BOMF/MA showed higher ultimate strain and slightly lower glass transition temperature, tensile modulus and ultimate strength. Interestingly, BOMF/MA displayed outstanding adhesive strength on CFRP joints, outperforming the DGEBA-based counterpart by three times. Indeed, by properly selecting the anhydride curing agent, a highly ductile fully bio-based material was developed for high performance adhesive applications. The overall results demonstrate that the properties of BOMF-based epoxy resins can be tailored to meet technical and safety requirements of downstream applications, representing a sustainable alternative to traditional systems containing DGEBA.

环氧树脂由于其良好的机械强度、耐化学性和对多种基材的附着力而广泛应用于各种应用领域。如今，绝大多数环氧树脂都是基于双酚 A (BPA) 的衍生物，这会带来严重的健康问题。这个问题正在推动研究转向该产品的合适的生物基替代品，在这方面，基于呋喃的环氧树脂非常有前途。在之前的工作中，2,5-双[(oxiran-2-ylmethoxy)methyl]furan (BOMF) 用甲基萘酸酐 (MNA) 固化，并成功用作马口铁涂层。在此，为了提高这些环氧树脂的可持续性，我们用马来酸酐 (MA) 代替了 MNA，马来酸酐 (MA) 可以从植物原料中提取，从而获得了完全生物基环氧树脂。后者随后被用作碳纤维增强热固性塑料 (CFRP) 的粘合剂。通过差示扫描量热法 (DSC) 和化学流变分析监测树脂的固化过程。结果突出表明，与 BPA 的二缩水甘油醚 (DGEBA) 相比，BOMF 对 MA 的反应性显着更高。交联样品的特征在于它们的热性能、机械性能和粘合性能。与 DGEBA/MA 和 BOMF/MNA 相比，BOMF/MA 显示出更高的极限应变和略低的玻璃化转变温度、拉伸模量和极限强度。有趣的是，BOMF/MA 在 CFRP 接头上显示出出色的粘合强度，比基于 DGEBA 的对应物高出三倍。实际上，通过正确选择酸酐固化剂，为高性能粘合剂应用开发了一种高度延展的完全生物基材料。总体结果表明，基于 BOMF 的环氧树脂的性能可以定制以满足下游应用的技术和安全要求，代表了包含 DGEBA 的传统系统的可持续替代品。