Thermal behavior of epoxy resins cured with an amine-containing, thermoplastic poly(arylene ether sulphone)

In this paper we carried out the crosslinking of the tetraglycidyl-4,4'-dia minodiphenyl methane epoxy resin by using a reactive poly(arylene ether sul phone) as curing agent. Differential scanning calorimetry was used to deriv e the kinetic parameters of the reactions involved in the cure process and to evaluate the extent of the reaction as a function of time by measuring t he total (Delta H-T) and the residual heat(Delta H-resid) of the resin at d ifferent curing times. A comparatively slower reaction was found to take pl ace when the resin was cured with the poly(arylene ether sulphone) that whe n it was cured with the conventional curing agent 4,4'-diaminodiphenyl sulp hone.