CHEMISTRY OF EPOXIDE RESINS .17. INFLUENCE OF STRUCTURE AND CURING CONDITIONS ON DENSITY DEGREE OF CURE AND GLASS TRANSITION TEMPERATURE DURING CURING OF EPOXIDE RESINS

During an investigation of various epoxide resin systems, some cases were found in which the room temperature density decreased with increasing curing temperature and increasing degree of cure. In other systems the density was found to be independent of the curing temperature. In these cases it is possible by deliberately stopping the reaction to measure density values which also decrease as the curing progresses. This unexpected behavior can be explained in a purely physical manner from the pattern of the density changes during an entire curing cycle. The density decrease of the noncured mixture, which is due to the increased curing temperature, outweighs all contraction effects consisting of isothermal chemical and cooling shrinkage, whereby the latter is dependent to a great extent on the glass temperature. In those cases where the glass temperature exceeds the curing temperature, the chemical reactions come to a standstill, when the temperature difference reaches a certain value, i.e. it “freezes chemically”. By means of values that can be measured readily at low temperatures, it is possible to construct diagrams from which the variation of the density at higher temperatures of the curing cycle can be estimated. Copyright © 1969 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.