Cure kinetics of biphenyl epoxy resin system using latent catalysts

The investigation of the cure kinetics of a biphenyl epoxy-phenol resin system with different kinds of latent catalysts was performed by differential scanning calorimetry using an isothermal approach. All kinetic parameters of the curing reaction including the reaction order, activation energy, and rate constant were calculated and reported. The results indicated that the curing reaction of the biphenyl epoxy resin system in this experiment proceeded through an autocatalytic kinetic mechanism, irrespective of the kind of catalyst. The epoxy resin system with acid/diazabicycloundecene (DBU) salt as the latent catalyst showed a second overall reaction order; however, a third reaction order was represented for microencapsulated triphenylphosphine (TPP). The storage stability tests for these systems were performed, and a good shelf life was observed in the epoxy resin system with pyromellitic acid/DBU salt, trimellitic acid/DBU salt, and microencapsulated TPP as the latent catalyst. (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.