Monitoring the cure of an epoxy‐anhydride resin

Abstract

AbstractThe cure of an epoxy‐anhydride resin system used in pultrusion was characterized to develop an understanding of the cure behavior and to determine potential process controls parameters. Isothermal cures of neat resin formulations were monitored by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), torsional braid analysis (TBA), and microdielectrometry (MDE). The processing conditions define a time/ temperature region in which monitoring would be applicable. Both DSC and MDE were found to yield useful information in this region, however, the events typically monitored by TBA either did not occur or occurred too quickly to be monitored. Significant ionic conductivity was observed in the fully cured resins at temperatures above the glass transition temperature and could possibly be used as a control parameter. This study revealed an apparent change in reaction mechanism with increasing cure temperature. DSC showed a change in activation energy with extent of reaction and a decrease in heat of reaction at the higher isothermal cure temperatures. The formation of a different network structure was indicated by a decreasing glass transition temperature of the cured resin with increasing cure temperature by both DSC and TBA.