Comparative DSC kinetics of the reaction of DGEBA with aromatic diamines. III. Formal kinetic study of the reaction of DGEBA with diamino diphenyl methane

The kinetics of the reaction of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A epoxy resin, DGEBA, with diamino diphenyl methane, DDM, has been studied in this work applying the differential scanning calorimetry, DSC. The analysis has been performed following the approach developed in preceding papers of the series. It consisted of: (i) iso-conversional plots of the DSC data versus time or temperature; (ii) analysis at the peak maximum of the DSC curves; (iii) fitting of the data to formal models; and (iv) model simulation. Both isothermal and non-isothermal data have been considered to evaluate a probable formal reaction model. The activation energy of the significant autocatalytic rate constant in the model, Ea, has been obtained comparable in both DSC regimes. It has been also established consistent with the apparent activation energy, E-ap, determined by applying isoconversional methods. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.