Curing behavior of unsaturated polyester resin with mixed initiators

Abstract The curing behavior of unsaturated polyester resin with mixed initiators was investigated both experimentally and theoretically. For the experimental investigation, we used various combinations of low and high‐temperature initiators to cure a general‐purpose unsaturated polyester resin and determined the rate of cure and the degree of cure, using differential scanning calorimetry and infrared spectroscopy. For the theoretical investigation, we used the mechanistic kinetic model described in our previous paper. It has been demonstrated that the mechanistic model is very useful for predicting the curing behaviour of unsaturated polyester resin with mixed initiators, using information on the rate constants of the individual initiators and the concentration of the initiator. Such an approach will help reduce, if not eliminating completely, the number of tedious and time‐consuming curing experiments that would otherwise have to be performed.