RUBBER-MODIFIED EPOXY-RESIN .1. CURE KINETICS AND CHEMORHEOLOGY

The curing and vitrification effect during the reaction of ATBN modified epoxy resin was studied through the dynamic differential scanning calorimetry method and a new reaction kinetic equation containing generalized WLF equation was developed to describe the reaction rate at both glassy and rubbery state. An autocatalytic mechanism was found to describe adequately the cure kinetics of the rubber modified epoxy resin and the overall order of reaction was assumed to be 2. The kinetic parameters were determined from the DSC data through the Marquardt's multivariable nonlinear regression method and Runge-Kutta integration technique. The presence of rubber indicated minor effect on the cure kinetics of epoxy resin. The Arrhenius type viscosity function was employed to establish a relationship between viscosity data measured by RMS and chemical conversion calculated from the reaction kinetic equation.