Choosing the Right Specialty Anhydride: The versatility of MTHPA
MTHPA is a widely-used specialty anhydride with many applications, especially as an intermediate in the various sectors of organic chemistry. This latest installation of our blog series, Choosing the Right Specialty Anhydride, features this versatile product and the many ways that it’s used.
MTHPA–a highly versatile anhydride
Methyl tetrahydrophthalic anhydride or MTHPA is an anhydride most often used as a curing agent for epoxy resins. It has a low tendency to absorb moisture from the air, and results in minimal or zero formation of carbon dioxide when mixed with tertiary amine accelerators.
MTHPA also blends well with many other liquid resins, creating stable and low viscosity mixtures with long pot lives. This property has made it popular in casting and potting, impregnation, and lamination.
Electronic components benefit from the anhydride’s excellent insulation properties. It offers good electrical insulation and mechanical properties, and has been widely used in the production of components such as resistors, transformers, ignition coils, capacitors, wiring parts, and fly-back transformers.
This particular anhydride is also an excellent choice for use in reinforced plastic applications like filament wound products used in glass fiber-reinforced plastics, oil pipelines, and sporting goods. It’s also excellent for printed circuit board production and lamination.
Broadview Technologies–offering a variety of MTHPA products
One of the other aspects of MTHPA that sets it apart is its versatility in how it can be formulated. Broadview Technologies has developed several different variations of the MTHPA anhydride in order to satisfy a wide range of customer needs for curing agents, electrical insulation, and more.
For example, one of the more unique formulations that we’ve developed is MTHPA-C8K. This product is a unique blend of precatalyzed MTHPA isomers that have been partially hydrogenated to optimize both its physical and electrical properties. This particular product offers advantages such as low viscosity and a near water-white color, and also contains a level of accelerator for easy use. MTHPA-C8K is typically used in structural composites that require higher Tg and better outdoor weatherability. It’s also useful in the development of epoxy encapsulation and vacuum impregnation compounds, and any applications where the product will be subject to high temperatures, high voltages, and high humidity.
Interested in our products? Check out our full product offerings on our website and learn more about Broadview Technologies.
