FERROCENE AND SOME OF ITS DERIVATIVES USED AS ACCELERATORS OF CURING REACTIONS IN UNSATURATED POLYESTER RESINS

The present paper gives a discussion of the accelerating effects of fe rrocene and some of its derivatives (acetylferrocene, benzoylferrocene , 1,1-dibenzoylferrocene, 1,1-diacetylferrocene, 1,2-ferrocenylethane, N,N-dimethylaminomethylferrocene and chloroferrocene) in hardening un saturated polyesters. A mechanism for the formation of active radicals which are able to initiate the hardening copolymerization reaction is proposed. These radicals are the products of ferrocene (ferrocene der ivative) and a dibenzoyl peroxide reaction. By a method consisting of evaluating the resistivity values, the rate constants for hardening re actions in unsaturated polyesters and the degree of hardening achieved in the resins were determined. Differences were observed in the energ ies of activation for the hardening reactions using various ferrocene derivatives.