Cure kinetics of biphenyl epoxy resin system using latent catalysts

The investigation of the cure kinetics of a biphenyl epoxy-phenol resin sys tem with different kinds of latent catalysts was performed by differential scanning calorimetry using an isothermal approach. All kinetic parameters o f the curing reaction including the reaction order, activation energy, and rate constant were calculated and reported. The results indicated that the curing reaction of the biphenyl epoxy resin system in this experiment proce eded through an autocatalytic kinetic mechanism, irrespective of the kind o f catalyst. The epoxy resin system with acid/diazabicycloundecene (DBU) sal t as the latent catalyst showed a second overall reaction order; however, a third reaction order was represented for microencapsulated triphenylphosph ine (TPP). The storage stability tests for these systems were performed, an d a good shelf life was observed in the epoxy resin system with pyromelliti c acid/DBU salt, trimellitic acid/DBU salt, and microencapsulated TPP as th e latent catalyst. (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.