I am currently looking into ablatively cooled nozzles. Most of the nozzles made out of composite material that I have found use phenol as resin (Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster, ARCA Excecutor).
I was wondering why there seem to be no nozzles which use other resins (for example epoxy). It would seem that these resins would be easier to handle and produce. Are there any material properties, which make phenolic resins especially suited to be used in ablative cooling? And are there other resins, which also perform well for this task?