A new curing kinetic model and its application to BPSER/DDM epoxy system

A new model has been deduced by assumed autocatalytic reactions. It include s two rate constants, k(1) and k(2), two reaction orders, m and n, and the initial concentration of [OH]. The model proposed has been applied to the c uring reaction of a system of bisphenol-S epoxy resin (BPSER), with 4,4'-di aminodiphenylmethane (DDM) as a curing agent. The curing reactions were stu died by means of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Analysis of DSC d ata indicated that an autocatalytic behavior showed in the curing reaction. The new model was found to fit to the experimental data exactly. Rate cons tants, k(1) and k(2) were observed to be greater when curing temperature in creased. The activation energies for k(1) and k(2) were 95.28 and 39.69 kJ mol(-1), respectively. Diffusion control was incorporated to describe the c ure in the latter stages.