They represent a wide variety of applications and environments

There are many different curatives and epoxy resins to choose from, but if the goal is to increase in-service thermal stability of fabricated parts (especially in electrical or corrosive environments), dianhydrides offer many advantages, including high Tg development without expensive resin selection. Dianhydrides also exhibit low exotherms and minimal shrinkage when curing, for greater dimensional stability.

Common applications:

• Electrical mass-castings
• Prepregs
• Syntactic foams

Other possible applications

• Pultrusion
• Filament winding

Why should I choose dianhydrides?

• Optimal performance from simple DGEBA resins
• Long pot life formulations
• Combined high Tg and adhesion
• Retained structural strength at high temperatures
• Retained electrical and chemical resistance at high temperatures

Considerations:

• Using dianhydrides and mono-anhydrides as blended co-curatives can facilitate mixing and metering, as well as formulation tailoring to meet a wide variety of processes and in-service uses

Additional reading:

• Formulating Tips for Epoxy-Anhydride Cure Systems