Effect of diluents on the curing behavior of vinyl ester resin

An acidic vinyl ester resin (∼6 mg KOH per gram of solid) was prepared by reacting a bisphenol‐A‐based epoxy resin with acrylic acid in the presence of tributyl amine. The acrylated epoxy resin thus obtained was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Five samples of vinyl ester resin containing styrene and methyl methacrylate (MMA) in the weight ratios 40:0, 30:10, 20:20, 10:30, and 0:40 were prepared at 30°C, and their curing behavior was studied by differential scanning calorimetry in the presence of benzoyl peroxide (2 phr). Curing behavior was dependent on the ratio of the two monomers used as reactive diluents. The kinetic parameters were determined by Ozawa's method. The energy of activation and frequency factor varied from 17 to 23 kcal mol −1 and 8.47 × 10 9 to 5.21 × 10 12 min −1 , respectively and were lowest for the samples containing 30:10 and 10:30 styrene/MMA weight ratios. The curing reactions followed first‐order kinetics and obeyed the Arrhenius rate expression. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 87: 1948–1951, 2003