Advanced integral isoconversional analysis for evaluating and predicting the kinetic parameters of the curing reaction of epoxy prepreg

Abstract

The kinetic parameters of the curing reaction of epoxy/glass prepreg have been evaluated and predicted by three different methods using the non-isothermal differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) data. In the first method, the dependence of activation energy, pre-exponential factor and reaction model on the extent of conversion have been calculated in the tabular form using advanced integral isoconversional method and then converted to the equation form. In the second method, the kinetic parameters of the Kamal and diffusion models have been evaluated using the activation energy dependency on the extent of conversion to reduce the number of kinetic parameters in minimization procedure. In the third method, a conventional non-isothermal model-fitting method has been used to evaluate the kinetic parameters of Sourour and Kamal's model. The predictions made by the methods based on the advanced isoconversional analysis show good agreement to both isothermal and non-isothermal experiments outside the experimental temperature regions.