Modification of epoxy-anhydride thermosets using a hyperbranched poly(ester-amide): I. Kinetic study

An epoxy-anhydride formulation used for the coating of electrical devices was modified with a commercially available hyperbranched poly(ester-amide), Hybrane (TM) S2200, in order to improve the thermal degradability of the resulting thermoset and thus facilitate the recovery of substrate materials after use of the component. The curing kinetics of the unmodified and modified formulations were studied in detail with differential scanning calorimetry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and rheology. The results suggest that S2200 gets incorporated into the network structure and the curing kinetics are accelerated by the presence of hydroxyl groups from S2200. (C) 2012 Society of Chemical Industry