Crosslinking of trimellitimide glycidyl ester derivatives

The cure reaction of diglycidyl trimellitimide esters with 4-dimethylaminop yridine, diaminodiphenylmethane, and dicyandiamide as hardener was studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Isoconversional kinetic analysi s was applied to nonisothermal DSC data and the dependences of activation e nergies on conversion degrees were obtained. Differences in the shape of th ese plots were found in accordance to the different kinetic schemes of the curing agents. The thermal properties of the final products evaluated by th ermogravimetry do not show noteworthy differences. (C) 1999 John Wiley & So ns, Inc.