Liquid crystalline epoxy azomethine thermoset

An investigation was carried out on the curing reaction of a liquid crystalline epoxy monomer, N, N'-bis[4-(2,3-epoxypropoxy)benzylydene]-1,4-phenylenediamine, with an aromatic diamine, sulfanilamide (SAA). The complexity of the curing involves the competition of the reactivities of a primary amine and a secondary amine and also a difference in reactivity of the amine and the amide functional groups from SAA. These phenomena have been studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) under isothermal and non-isothermal conditions. The stability of the mesophase during cross-linking reaction was investigated by polarized optical microscopy (POM) and X-ray diffraction (WAXS).