Kinetic studies of an epoxy cure reaction by isothermal DSC analysis

Autocatalytic cure kinetics for an epoxy system was studied by isothermal DSC analysis. The system used in this study was the diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A(DGEBA)/4,4'-methylene dianiline (MDA) system with various contents of phenyl glycidyl ether (PGE)-acetamide (AcAm). Regardless of the PGE-AcAm content, the shape of the conversion curves was sigmoid, and this meant that DGEBA/MDA/PGE-AcAm system underwent an autocatalytic cure reaction. When the PGE-AcAm content increased, the cure rate increased due to the catalytic role of hydroxyl groups of PGE-AcAm. From the comparison between theoretical prediction and experimental data, it was found that the autocatalytic expression correctly represented to analyze the cure kinetics of these systems. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.