Curable resins and articles made therefrom

Abstract

Optical devices of excellent optical and physical properties produced from cured resins are disclosed. The resins and / or the cured hybrid polymer material made with the resins are characterized by a high level of cycloaliphatic-containing groups. Specific additives that can participate in crosslinking the curable polysiloxane provide additional physical property advantages.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12 / 813,686, filed Jun. 11, 2010, which claims the benefit of the filing date of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61 / 268,488 filed Jun. 12, 2009, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Known materials are often incapable of satisfactorily balancing the many requirements necessary for use as optical devices. Indeed, the often competing criteria for successful optical polymers are numerous and include: (1) material must have a high transparency with little or no yellowing (greater than 90% transmission between 400 nanometers and 700 nanometers); (2) low cure shrinkage (less than 4% and in other embodiments, less than 2% linear shrinkage); (3) low “reflow” shrinkage also known as low post thermal shrinkage (less than 2% linear shrinkage upon temperature excursion between room temperature and up to 280° C...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0007]In still another aspect of the invention, there is provided a crosslinked solid hybrid polymer material produced from a mixture of PT curable resin, at least two additives selected from the group consisting of hydroxyoxetanes, diglycidyl ethers, alcohols and divinyl ethers, and in one particular embodiment, hydroxyoxetane and a glycidyl ether. The resulting solid hybrid polymer material has excellent optical properties, rendering it useful and capable of being used for producing optical devices or coatings for optical devices having a high refractive index of greater than 1.48, an Abbe number of greater than 45, a low cure shrinkage of less than 3%, and high fracture toughness. Optical devices produced from this material and coatings produced for use on optical devices made from this material are also contemplated.

[0008]In yet another aspect of the invention, there is provided a cured solid hybrid polymer of excellent optical properties having a refractive index greater than 1.49, an Abbe number greater than 53, low cure shrinkage (less than 2% linear shrinkage), and high fracture toughness.

[0009]At least some of the PT curable resins described herein can be reacted with up to about 40% of a mixture of at least two of a hydroxyoxetane, a glycidyl ether, a divinyl ether and / or an alcohol to form a cured solid hybrid polymer having a refractive index of 1.48 or more, an Abbe number of 45 or more, and sufficient fracture toughness. Optical devices and coatings for optical devices made from these materials are also contemplated.

Problems solved by technology

Known materials are often incapable of satisfactorily balancing the many requirements necessary for use as optical devices.

Perhaps the most difficult of these to meet are the requirements of low cure shrinkage, low dispersion, high refractive index, and high fracture toughness.

This leads to cracking and breaking when films or other fabricated parts (optical devices) supported on glass substrates undergo thermal annealing (to between room temperature and 130° C.

Overcoming low fracture toughness of cationic epoxycyclohexyl-based resins in general, and ECHETMS-based resins in particular, is a challenging issue that has received considerable attention in the published literature.

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