FT-NIR SPECTROSCOPY - TRENDS AND APPLICATION TO THE KINETIC-STUDY OF EPOXY TRIAMINE SYSTEM (COMPARISON WITH DSC AND SEC RESULTS)/

The principal objectives of this paper are: (1) to present one applica tion of the FT-NIR spectroscopy and (2) to give trends of the NIR anal ysis. An investigation of the kinetic of an epoxy (DGEBA)/triamine (li quid hardener T403) system was carried out by near infrared (NIR) spec troscopy, DSC and SEC. This homogeneous model system involves a simple addition reaction mechanism leading to an exothermic reaction between epoxide and amine hydrogen functional groups. The extent of reaction was calculated from NIR absorption band at 4528 cm(-1) which depends o n epoxide concentration. The comparison of the extent of reaction eval uated from DSC and SEC results shows an excellent agreement with NIR r esults for this epoxy formulation. The wide field of application and t he increasing number of manufacturers presenting low cost FT-NIR spect rometers can help the increase of the number of laboratories using NIR spectroscopy. On the other hand, one of the main advantage of NIR ana lysis technique versus DSC or SEC is the possibility of real time anal ysis, at-line and on-line monitoring. Thus the recent developments and trends of this technique (NIR) are also presented in a short overview . Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd