An approach to enhancing the volumetric expansion on polymerization of spirobislactone is proposed. This approach suggests a molecular modification of spirobislactone through attaching a rigid pendant segment bearing maleimido group to its aromatic ring. An additional volumetric expansion is achieved from loose molecular packing in cured resins due to the steric hindrance effect among rigid pendent segments. Thus a new monomer, maleimido-functionalized spirobislactone (MFS), is prepared. In order to evaluate the volumetric expansion of MFS during curing, tetraglycidyl 4,4'-diamino diphenyl methane (TGDDM) is employed to cure with MFS. The volumetric expansion of MFS on curing is measured to be 12.3%, higher than that of net spirobislactone monomer. The existence of loose molecular packing in MFS/epoxy cured resins is demonstrated by morphology observation of the cured resin stained by the phosphotungstic acid (PTA), and the stained regions are observed to be nanoparticles. Such a cured resin, prepared from 20 mol% of MFS and 80 mol% of TGDDM epoxy resin, shows excellent toughness (Charpy impact strength 13,000 J/m(2)) and good mechanical strength (flexural strength 120 MPa, storage flexural modulus 4.2 GPa). Its glass transition temperature by dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMA) attains 227 degreesC, much higher than that of the cured resin from net spirobislactone and epoxy resin.