A novel imidazole derivative curing agent for epoxy resin: Synthesis, characterization, and cure kinetic

Abstract

AbstractA novel imidazole derivative (named as EMI‐g‐BGE) was synthesized through the reaction of 2‐ethyl‐4‐methyl imidazole (EMI) and butyl glycidyl ether (BGE) and characterized by elemental analysis, FTIR spectroscopy, and 1H NMR spectroscopy. The curing kinetic of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) epoxy resin with EMI‐g‐BGE as curing agent was studied by nonisothermal DSC technique at different heating rates. Dynamic DSC scans indicated that EMI‐g‐BGE was an effective curing agent of epoxy resin. The apparent activation energy Ea was 71.8 kJ mol−1 calculated through Kissinger method, and the kinetic parameters were determined by Málek method for the kinetic analysis of the thermal treatment obtained by DSC measurement. A two‐parameter (m, n) autocatalytic model (Šesták‐Berggren equation) was found to be the most adequate selected kinetic model. In addition, the predicted curves from the kinetic model fit well with the nonisothermal DSC thermogram. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008