DETERMINATION OF KINETIC-PARAMETERS OF POLYMERIZATIONS BY DIFFERENTIAL SCANNING CALORIMETRY

Differential scanning calorimetry is well suited to record heat produc tions of chemical and physical processes as data for the following kin etic analysis. To obtain kinetic parameters of complex reactions, nonl inear optimization methods have to be used. Such complex reaction syst ems are polymerizations. We tried to evaluate measurements of the epox y cure and the polymerization of beta-propiolactame with simple and co mplex models. In both cases the simple models did not produce satisfac tory results. But by using complex models a successful fitting of the measured data was possible. Our investigation shows that the combinati on of DSC and modern nonlinear evaluation methods presents a suitable tool for the kinetic investigation of polymerizations. (C) 1998 Elsevi er Science B.V.