Cure kinetics of epoxy resin used for advanced composites

The cure kinetics of an epoxy resin used for the preparation of advanced polymeric composite structures was studied by isothermal differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). A series of isothermal DSC runs provided information about the kinetics of cure over a wide temperature range. According to the heat evolution behavior during the curing process, several influencing factors of isothermal curing reactions were evaluated. The results showed that the isothermal kinetic reaction of this epoxy resin followed an autocatalytic kinetic mechanism. In the latter reaction stage, the curing reaction became controlled mainly by diffusion. Cure rate was then modeled using a modified Kamal autocatalytic model that accounts for the shift from a chemically controlled reaction to a diffusion-controlled reaction. The model parameters were determined by a nonlinear multiple regression method. (C) 2004 Society of Chemical Industry.