Curing Reaction Kinetics of Epoxy/MWCNT-P Composites

The effects of the functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT-P) on the curing behavior of a diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A epoxy (DGEBA) in the presence of 4,4'-methylenedianiline were investigated by non-isothermal differential scanning calorimetry. Activation energy (E a ) was obtained through Kissinger and Ozawa methodsItalic text respectively, and reaction order(n) was educed by Crane equation. The results showed that the addition of MWCNT-P enhanced the cure reaction of DGEBA with 4,4'-methylenedianiline, compared with pure epoxy system, epoxy containing MWCNT-P exhibited a lower activation energy. Both systems presented the same reaction orders, which indicated MWCNT-P did not change the auto-catalytic cure reaction mechanism of the epoxy resin.