ИСТИНА

Asphaltenes are polyaromatic high-molecular substances that are found in heavy crude oils. They are obtained as a residual product of crude oil processing. The structure of asphaltenes is similar to that of graphene with grafted peripheral hydrocarbon groups. The size of nanoaggregates of asphaltenes is 3-5 nm. Therefore, asphaltenes can be considered as cheap fillers to produce modified polymer matrices [1, 2]. The asphaltenes were obtained from Ashalchinskaya crude oil by precipitation with hexamethyldisiloxane. Then the asphaltenes were added to diglycidyl ether of Bisphenol A (DGEBA) using dispergator IKA Ultra-Turrax at 120°C. The rheological, thermophysical, and adhesion properties of such blends containing up to 30% of asphaltenes were considered. The glass transition temperature and curing kinetics were evaluated using DSC (TA Instruments 2920 MDSC). The flow curves and frequency dependencies of storage and loss moduli were obtained using rotational rheometer (TA Instruments DHR-2) with a cone-and-plate measuring unit (the cone diameter was 25 mm and the cone to plate angle is 2°). Adhesion between asphaltenes and epoxy matrix was measured using standard sessile drop method by a goniometer LK-1 (OpenScience). It was demostrated that using of asphaltenes as fillers can be regarded as a promising method for modification of mechanical and adhesion properties of epoxy formulations while not altering significantly the viscosity of epoxy resins, their glass transition temperature and curing rate.