Effect of nanoclay and carboxyl-terminated (butadiene-co-acrylonitrile) (CTBN) rubber on the reaction induced phase separation and cure kinetics of an epoxy/cyclic anhydride system

The effects of nano clay, carboxyl-terminated (butadiene-co-acrylonitrile) (CTBN) liquid rubber and the combination of both on the cure kinetics of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A (DGEBA)-based epoxy resin/nadic methyl anhydride were studied. Cure kinetics studies were carried out by performing dynamic and isothermal differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) experiments. The dynamic DSC experiments were carried out at four different heating rates. Dynamic kinetic modeling was performed using Kissinger and Ozawa approaches. Since these methods are based exclusively on the maximum rate of cure, which occurs approximately at the beginning of the cure reaction, the activation energy calculated using these methods is valid only for the initial stage of the cure. The clay (3 phr) filled epoxy system has an activation energy 24 % lower than the unfilled system. The role of the surfactant chemistry on the initial stage of the cure reaction was also studied. A plausible reaction mechanism which involves the effect of the nanoclay surfactant as an accelerator of the cure reaction was proposed. The phase separated CTBN rubber hindered the cure reaction and has 3 % higher activation energy for epoxy/CTBN system than the unfilled system. In the ternary epoxy/3 phr clay/15 phr CTBN system, the accelerating effect of clay on cure was highlighted. The cure activation observed in the presence of clay overshadows the hindrance created by the phase separated CTBN. Isothermal DSC scans were carried out at five different temperatures. The experimental datas showed an autocatalytic behavior of the reaction, and the isothermal modeling was carried out by Kamal autocatalytic model. The results showed a very good agreement within the whole conversion range for the unfilled and all the filled systems. The evolution of the morphology and phase separation was also studied using optical and scanning electron microscope. Faster cure reaction resulted in smaller phase-separated CTBN particles in epoxy/clay/CTBN ternary system as compared with those observed in epoxy/CTBN binary blend.