Summary: The novel potential epoxy resins, epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) and epoxidized castor oil (ECO), were synthesized and characterized. The cationic polymerization of ESO and ECO with a latent thermal catalyst, N‐benzylpyrazinium hexafluoroantimonate (BPH), was initiated at 80 and 50 °C, respectively. The cured ECO samples showed a higher Tg and lower coefficient of thermal expansion than those of ESO, due to the higher intermolecular interaction in the ECO/BPH system.
Relationships between ESO or ECO conversion and temperature in the polymerization with 1 wt.‐% BPH for 2 h.
