FT-NIR spectroscopy: Trends and application to the kinetic study of epoxy/triamine system (comparison with DSC and SEC results)

The principal objectives of this paper are: (1) to present one application of the FT-NIR spectroscopy and (2) to give trends of the NIR analysis. An investigation of the kinetic of an epoxy (DGEBA)/triamine (liquid hardener T403) system was carried out by near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, DSC and SEC. This homogeneous model system involves a simple addition reaction mechanism leading to an exothermic reaction between epoxide and amine hydrogen functional groups. The extent of reaction was calculated from NIR absorption band at 4528 cm(-1) which depends on epoxide concentration. The comparison of the extent of reaction evaluated from DSC and SEC results shows an excellent agreement with NIR results for this epoxy formulation. The wide field of application and the increasing number of manufacturers presenting low cost FT-NIR spectrometers can help the increase of the number of laboratories using NIR spectroscopy. On the other hand, one of the main advantage of NIR analysis technique versus DSC or SEC is the possibility of real time analysis, at-line and on-line monitoring. Thus the recent developments and trends of this technique (NIR) are also presented in a short overview. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd