Learning about epoxy cure mechanisms from isoconversional analysis of DSC data

Model-free isoconversional methods can be effectively applied to isothermal and non-isothermal differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) data on epoxy cures, These methods yield a dependence of the effective activation energy on the extent of cure. Analysis of this dependence allows for untangling complex cure processes that may include different chemical reactions or a chemical reaction complicated by a mass transfer processes such as viscous relaxation and vitrification. The applications are illustrated by simulations as well as by epoxy-anhydride and epoxy-amine cures. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.