Cure Kinetics Study of Two Epoxy Systems with Fourier Tranform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC)

Abstract This work was aimed at the study of cure kinetics of two commercial thermosetting epoxy systems, Epikote resin 816 LV/Epikure F205 and Epikote resin 240/Epikure F205, by Fourier Tranform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). The studied systems consist of a resin (A), based on a diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A and a hardener (B) based on the Isophorodiamine (IPDA) a cycloaliphatic diamine. These systems are used for the building and civil engineering industries, e.g. flooring compounds, adhesives, mortars and grouts. FTIR spectroscopy was employed to investigate the isothermal curing kinetics at 30, 50 or 70°C and DSC analysis to study the non-isothermal curing kinetics at different heating rates 2.5, 5, 10 and 20°C/min, from 20 to 300°C. A kinetic model was employed to simulate the FTIR isothermal experimental data using two kinetic rate constants and incorporating also diffusion control at high degrees of conversion. Finally, the variation of the effective activation energy with the extent of curing was estimated using isoconversional analysis of non-isothermal DSC data. Keywords: Epoxy resinepikote resin 816 LVepikote resin 240epikure F205curing kineticsFTIRDSCkinetic parameters