Effect of thermoplastic toughening agent on glass transition temperature and cure kinetics of an epoxy prepreg

The isothermal time–temperature-transformation (TTT) cure diagram is developed in this article to investigate the effect of thermoplastic toughening agent on glass transition temperature (Tg) and cure kinetics of an epoxy carbon fiber prepreg, Cycom 977-2 unidirectional (UD) tape. The glass transition temperature was measured using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) over a wide range of isothermal cure temperatures from 140 to 200 °C. Times to gelation and vitrification were measured using shear rheometry. The glass transition temperature master curve was obtained from the experimental data and the corresponding shift factors were used to calculate the activation energy. The kinetic rate model was utilized to construct iso-Tg contours using the calculated activation energy. It was observed that the iso-Tg contours did not follow the behavior of the neat epoxy resin, since they deviated from the gel time curve. This deviation was believed to be the effect of the thermoplastic toughening agent. The behavior of the neat epoxy resin in 977-2 was shown by constructing the iso-Tg contours using the activation energy obtained from gel time modeling.