Studies of the Physical Properties of Cycloaliphatic Epoxy Resin Reacted with Anhydride Curing Agents

The preparation of high performance epoxy composites for industrial applications has been extensively researched. In this report, we study the change in physical properties and reaction kinetics between epoxy resin and curing agents of similar geometry. For the experiments, celloxide 2021P, an epoxy resin having low viscosity, was blended with three different curing agents: methylhexahydropthalic acid, methyltetrahydropthalic acid, and 5-norbornene-2, 3-dicarboxylic anhydride. The amount of 1, 2-dimethylimidazole catalyst was controlled, and the highest heat flow temperature (T peak ) was observed at around 145 °C. The impact on reaction kinetics relative to the change in heating rate was studied with differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) for each of the curing agents. The glass transition temperature (T g ) of each composition was measured with a second DSC cycle. The prepared epoxy compositions were thermally cured in a metallic mold to provide pure epoxy resins without fillers. Finally, the flexural strengths of these resins were compared to each other. The authors believe that insights into choosing an appropriate epoxy binder are useful when it comes to the overall preparation of high performance polymer composites.