Abstract: Inverse gas chromatography (IGC) was used to measure the surface tension and solubility parameter of E51 epoxy resin in this work. By using the Schultz method, decane, nonane, octane and heptane were chosen as the neutral probes to calculate the dispersive surface tensions (γD). Based on the Good-van Oss equation, the specific surface tension (γSP) of E51 epoxy resin was calculated with the acidic probe of dichloromethane and the basic probe of toluene. The results showed that the γD and γSP of the E51 resin decreased linearly with the increase of temperature. According to the Flory-Huggins parameters (χ) between the resin and a series of probes, the solubility parameters (δ) of E51 resin at different temperatures were estimated using the method developed by DiPaola-Baranyi and Guillet. It was found that the values of δ of the E51 resin were 11.78, 11.57, 11.48 and 11.14 MPa1/2 at 30, 40, 50 and 60 ℃, respectively. The dispersive component (δD) and the specific component (δSP) of solubility parameter at different temperatures of the E51 resin were investigated according to the relationships between surface tension, cohesion energy and solubility parameter. The results showed that the values of δD were higher than those of δSP for the epoxy resin, and both of them decreased with the increase of temperature.

Key words: epoxy resin , solubility parameter, surface tension, inverse gas chromatography (IGC)