Cure kinetics of amine-cured diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A epoxy blendedwith poly(ether imide)

An epoxy based on the diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) has been modi fied with poly(ether imide) (PEI) and cured with 1,3-bisaminomethylcyclohex ane (1,3-BAC). The curing kinetics of the neat resin and of a PEI/epoxy ble nd were analysed and compared by differential scanning calorimetry. The res ults showed that the PEI has effect on curing reaction, reaching less conve rsion in this process than for the neat system. The experimental data for b oth systems showed an autocatalytic behaviour and the phenomenological mode l of Kamal was proposed to obtain the activation energies for the rate cons tants. The values of the activation energies for the PEI/epoxy blend system are higher than the values for the neat system. Diffusion control is incor porated to describe the cure in the latter stages predicting the cure kinet ics over the whole range of conversion. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.