CURE PROCESSING MODELING AND CURE CYCLE SIMULATION OF EPOXY-TERMINATED POLY(PHENYLENE ETHER KETONE) .1. DSC CHARACTERIZATION OF CURING REACTION

The curing reaction process of epoxy-terminated poly(phenylene ether k etone) (E-PEK) with 4,4'-diaminodiphenyl sulfone (DDS) and hexahydroph thalic acid anhydride (Nadic) as curing agents was investigated using isothermal differential scanning calorimetry (IDSC) and nonisothermal differential scanning calorimetry (DDSC) techniques. It was found that the curing reactions of E-PEK/DDS and E-PEK/Nadic are nth-order react ions but not autoaccelerating. The experimental results revealed that the curing reaction kinetics parameters measured from IDSC and DDSC ar e not equivalent. This means that, in the curing reaction kinetics mod el for our E-PEK system, both isothermal and nonisothermal reaction ki netics parameters are needed to describe isothermal and nonisothermal curing processes, The isothermal and nonisothermal curing processes we re successfully simulated using this model. A new extrapolation method was suggested. On the basis of this method the maximum extent of the curing reaction (A(ult)) that is able to reach a certain temperature c an be predicted. The A(ult) for the E-PEK system estimated by the new method agrees well with the results obtained from another procedure re ported in the literature. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.