A syntactic foam is a composite material that is made by filling a polymer, ceramic, or metal with pre-formed hollow glass or ceramic spheres called micro balloons. The term ‘syntactic’ refers to the ordered arrangement of the spheres, and the term ‘foam’ refers to the closed cellular structure.

Syntactic Foam Properties

The hollow spheres within syntactic foam provide most of the materials beneficial properties. They have high specific strength, a low coefficient of thermal expansion, and lower overall density due to their air- or gas-filled content.

Syntactic foams are extremely tailorable; there is a lot of choice for the matrix material, the size and composition of the microballoons. The compressive strength of syntactic foams are directly proportional to the microballoon volume fraction and wall thickness.

Tensile strength is influenced by the matrix material. Typically metals provide the highest tensile strength, followed by ceramics, and then polymers.

Syntactic foams also benefit from buoyancy, thermal insulation, and high energy dissipation.

Syntactic Foam Benefits

Due to the hollow sphere fillers, syntactic foams often have over 50% porosity, which provides significant weight savings compared to conventional materials. Syntactic foams exhibit high compressive strength, which can be enhanced even further if required. This high compressive strength is advantageous for foams that are exposed to hydrostatic pressure or heavy loading.

These materials are also excellent insulators as they exhibit low thermal conductivity due to their porous structure. Syntactic foams offer a range of additional engineering and economic benefits over traditional insulation.

Syntactic Foam Applications

Syntactic foams can be used in applications as alternatives to many traditional materials, including PVC, plastics, metals, and other foams. These alternatives can’t provide the same level of strength, weight savings, and density as syntactic foams.

One of the most popular applications of syntactic foams is in the marine industry due to their buoyancy and low moisture absorption. These materials can also be used for spacecraft, pipe insulation, underwater vehicles, boat hulls, and even soccer balls.

If you would like any more information about syntactic foams, please contact us.

At JAYHAWK, we are a very people-centric company, so our presence on social media is very important to us. We’ve had our Instagram account @jayhawkfinechem since September 2017, and it’s a great outlet for us to showcase our products, services, and most importantly, our teams.

Followers will see regular updates from our site in Kansas and can get a real idea of the work we do for our customers and the community. In addition to the personal branding you can see across our website, we use our Instagram account to highlight the great people who work for us. Our #FineWorkerFriday hashtag is used weekly to feature one member of the team, and let you know a little more about them. We have recently featured an environmental technician, plant operators, and a lab manager.

Our love of hashtags also continues on Thursdays, as we like to share Throwback Thursday photos to remember how our plants used to look back in the day. It is within these posts that we highlight the history of the JAYHAWK brand and how the company has grown since it was founded in 1941. For example, we recently shared a throwback photo of operators at JAYHAWK from 1946!

Across our Instagram feed you can really get a feel for the community at JAYHAWK, and we love sharing our work with our followers. We want to use our Instagram account to show potential employees what the culture is like if you were to work at JAYHAWK. If you are interested in working at JAYHAWK or curious about how the company has grown over the years, go and give us a follow at @jayhawkfinechem on Instagram!

An epoxy is a thermosetting polymer that possesses unique mechanical and resistance properties. The term epoxy can be used for the cured end product or any of the basic components within epoxy resins.

An epoxy resin is a class of thermoset polymer made from a monomer that contains at least two epoxide groups. Epoxy resins can be homopolymerized or cross-linked into a three dimensional network using curatives. A broad assortment of curatives are available for ambient or thermal-curing and include polyfunctional acids, amines, phenols, thiols, alcohols and anhydrides, and are often known as curing agents or hardeners.

Epoxy resin types include those based on the Diglycidyl ether of Bisphenol A (DGEBA); cycloaliphatics with saturated ring structures; epoxy novolaks based on phenol and formaldehyde; and tetrafunctional epoxies such as Tetraglycidyl-4,4′-diaminodiphenyl methane (TGDDM). Different grades of epoxy resin may be blended to achieve desired properties or reduce overall costs.

EEW is the Epoxy Equivalent Weight, denoting the weight of resin in grams that contain the equivalent of one epoxy group. EEW is dependent upon molecular weight and is useful in determining curing agent concentrations. The general rule is that as EEW increases, the amount of curative decreases. This can also be expressed by stoichiometry, or the use of molar ratios to calculate the required amount of epoxy and curative.

For anhydrides, it is important to note that, while stoichiometry may be used as a guide to determine curative dosing, empirically determined lower levels are typically used for optimal results.

Epoxy Applications

Epoxies can be used for a range of applications. Using epoxy for adhesive applications is arguably one of the most popular uses. They are considered the strongest adhesive available, and epoxy adhesives have found use in the automotive and aerospace industries. Solvent-free epoxy adhesives provide water resistance, durability, chemical resistance and thermal resistance.

Epoxy coatings find use on metal substrates where heavy duty service is required. They provide a tough, protective coating, with outstanding hardness.

Epoxy resins are outstanding electrical insulators, which makes them useful components for the electronics industry. They are used in the manufacture of generators, motors, transformers, and insulators.

Solutions from JAYHAWK

JAYHAWK have a long history in developing and manufacturing a range of dianhydrides useful as thermal curatives for epoxy resins. JAYHAWK BTDA (Benzophenone tetracarboxylic dianhydride) serves as our flagship product. If you would like any more information about JAYHAWK Dianhdyrides, please contact us today.

A polymer is defined as a large network of molecules that consist of many repeat units. A polyimide is a specific type of polymer, consisting of imide monomers. Polyimides are highly desirable for their heat resistance, mechanical strength, and insulative properties.

What is an Imide?

To obtain a good understanding of what a polyimide is, first we have to understand the chemistry within it. An imide is a functional group consisting of two acyl groups bound to nitrogen. Imides are highly polar, which provides them with good solubility in polar media.

Polyimides

Polyimides are produced from diamines and dianhydrides in a two-stage process. The product from the 1^ststage, a polyamic acid, is imidized in the 2^nd stage using either heat or a chemical dehydrating agent to form the polyimide.

Polyimides may be thermoplastic, with a high melt viscosity requiring high pressure to form molded parts. Examples include SKYBOND® molding resins and KAPTON® films.

Polyimides may also be thermosetting, whereby imide oligomers are crosslinked into a three-dimensional network. Examples of thermoset polyimides include PMR-15® and PETI® matrix resins for advanced composites.

Polyimide Properties

Most polyimides are orange/yellow in color, and they provide excellent thermal stability, mechanical strength, electrical properties, and good chemical resistance.

Newer generations of colorless polyimides (CPI) have been recently introduced, exhibiting high transmittance and low Yellow Index for improved clarity.

Graphite or glass fiber reinforcements are often added to polyimide matrix resins to form advanced composite materials with impressive strength-to-weight ratios.

Polyimide Applications

Polyimides exhibit a range of attractive properties, which make them useful for many applications in aerospace, electronics, and industrial sectors.

When manufacturing semiconductors and flexible printed circuits, polyimides have a variety of uses. They can be used as high-temperature adhesive, mechanical stress buffers, and as a film to support micronized circuity. They are useful in the manufacture of electronic cables as an insulating film on the magnet wire.

Polyimide composites find use in aerospace to replace metals in engine components, such as ductwork and insulation.

Polyimide fibers are woven into protective clothing for firefighters, and bags for hot gas filtration in cement kilns and power plants.

Polyimide foams are used for lightweight highly efficient thermal and acoustic insulation in marine vessels and aircraft.

Dianhydrides

JAYHAWK develop and manufacture a range of dianhydrides that are suitable for polyimide synthesis. Our products can be used to improve polyimide processing and provide property enhancements.

If you would like any more information about how JAYHAWK dianhydrides can be used for polyimide synthesis, please contact us.

[The trade names listed herein are owned by their respective manufacturers.]

JAYHAWK Dianhydrides

The term “dianhydride” describes a general class of fine chemical intermediate formed by the removal of water from an organic acid. The simplest example, two acyl groups bound by a common oxygen molecule, is shown above [Image 1].

Cyclic dianhydrides are very popular intermediates for epoxies, polyimides, polyesters and other resin systems. Familiar choices include Pyromellitic dianhydride (PMDA); 4,4’-Oxydiphthalic anhydride (ODPA); Hexafluoroisopropylidene-bis-phthalic dianhydride (6-FDA); and 3,3’,4,4’-Benzophenonetetracarboxylic dianhydride (BTDA®).

Dianhydrides serve as thermal curatives for epoxy resins, creating a highly-crosslinked three-dimensional polymer network. These resins find widespread use in the coating and protection of electronic components.

Polyimides are synthesized using dianhydrides as a co-monomer with diamines. Composites, fibers, films, and foams are but a few of the many applications where polyimides are called upon to provide heat resistance and dimensional stability under aggressive conditions.

Dianhydrides are used with polyesters and alkyd resins to modify their backbone structure and provide improved thermal, mechanical and chemical resistance to resin binders in a variety of coating formulations.

The functionality of dianhydrides can also be leveraged to combine different chemistries into new hybrid resin systems.

The benefits of dianhydrides are quite universal across all applications – excellent retention of properties at elevated temperatures for extended periods of time.

JAYHAWK BTDA is the legacy dianhydride with modern uses for applications requiring sustainable performance in high temperature, pressure, and aggressive chemical environments.

When you think of…

Electric motors, lighting and navigation systems in your new car;

Complex circuitry in your smartphone and tablet;

Reliable oil/gas/wind/solar power delivery;

…remember that BTDA plays a role in all of these technologies, enabling components to run without disruption and extend their service life.

JAYHAWK supplies a broad range of dianhydrides, including BTDA in powder, fine, flake, microfine, and ultrapure grades. If you would like more information about our products and how they can be used in your applications, please contact us today.

Fine chemicals are organic or inorganic molecules manufactured in kilogram to multi-ton quantities by traditional or biotechnological chemical processes in plants throughout the world. They are produced to exacting specifications and serve as vital components of the value chain for downstream applications, including many of the products consumers rely upon each day. The process of developing and manufacturing fine chemicals is complex and often subject to multi-step synthesis.

Fine Chemical Applications

The pharmaceutical industry is the largest consumer of fine chemicals, as many active ingredients and intermediates are sourced from an assortment of fine chemical manufacturing partners, producing life-saving medicines and treatments.

In the same manner, fine chemicals are also used in the agrochemical industry, producing herbicides, fungicides, and pesticides via carefully controlled, contamination prevention protocols. Agrochemicals are essential to improving yields and harvests of produce to feed the world’s growing population.

Other applications that employ fine chemicals include adhesives, catalysts, food, and specialty polymers for fibers, foams, advanced composites, and electronic components. Smartphone technology owes its performance to the high-purity of fine chemical raw materials.

Fine Chemical Technologies

The development and manufacture of fine chemicals involve a number of different technologies, due to the challenging nature of their production. Alkylation, Azo chemistry, Formylation, Grignard chemistry, Halogenation, Heterocyclic synthesis, Hydrogenation, Phosphorous chemistry, and Suzuki coupling are but a few of the competencies necessary for a full-service manufacturer to support applications in multiple industries.

Fine Chemicals from JAYHAWK

JAYHAWK has a wealth of experience in the development and production of fine chemicals. We offer a portfolio of made-to-order fine chemical building blocks, used as starting materials for a range of applications.

We also offer fine chemical custom manufacturing services, and our team is readily available to help you assess your make-or-buy options.

Our sourcing solutions are high in quality, efficacy, and value.

If you would like any more information about our range of fine chemicals, please contact us today.

When manufacturing custom chemicals JAYHAWK specializes in a range of chemistries, which help to provide customers with a product that is high quality and cost-efficient. This blog post will outline some of the key chemistries used by JAYHAWK.

Alkylation

Alkylation is the process of transferring an alkyl group from one molecule to another to develop a custom chemical. There are two classifications of alkylation, based on the alkylating agent.

A nucleophilic alkylating agent delivers a negatively charged alkyl group to the hydrocarbon, which is the equivalent of an alkyl anion. Examples of these include organolithium, organocopper, and Grignard reagents.

An electrophilic alkylating agent delivers a positively charged alkyl group to the hydrocarbon, which is the equivalent of an alkyl cation. Typical electrophilic alkylating agents include alkyl halides.

Halogenation

Halogenation is the process of adding a halogen to a compound or material to develop a custom chemical.

There is a range of different methods of performing halogenation, that can vary due to reaction type; free radical halogenation, halogenation of aromatic compounds, etc. or by halogen type; fluorination, chlorination, etc.

The method used to perform halogenation can be dictated by the structure of the substrate and the halogen agent employed.

Grignard Chemistry

The Grignard reaction is typically used for the formation of carbon-carbon bonds. It consists of the reaction between a Grignard reagent (organomagnesium halide) and a wide range of compounds including ketones, aldehydes, esters, alkyl halides.

Suzuki Coupling

Suzuki coupling is a metal catalysed (often Pd or Pt) reaction between a boronic acid or ester and an organohalide. This chemistry is often used to synthesize styrenes, poly-olefins, and most often substituted biphenyls.

Hydrogenation

Hydrogenation is the chemical reaction between hydrogen and another element, often using a catalyst such as palladium or platinum. It is typically used to convertm usaturated compounds to saturated derivatives.

Custom Chemicals from JAYHAWK

JAYHAWK are leaders in developing and manufacturing a range of custom chemicals for customers using a range of different chemistries and technologies. Our services team is always available to provide assistance to customers evaluating their make-or-buy options.

If you would like some more information about our range of custom chemicals, please contact us.