UNSATURATED POLYESTER RESINS - A STUDY OF THE MECHANISM AND KINETICS OF THE CURING PROCESS BY FTIR SPECTROSCOPY

The polymerization of a commercial grade polyester resin was investiga ted by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy. The conversion profile s of both the styrene and the polyester unsaturations were obtained in a temperature range from 336 K to 363 K. The kinetic data were interp reted in terms of the reaction mechanism and the molecular mobility of the reactants in the system. An attempt was made to describe the beha vior of the system by using two different model equations. It was foun d that a model widely used in the literature did not describe satisfac torily the experimental data; better results were obtained by using a more general form of the same model equation.