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Cure kinetics studies of cyanate ester and bisphenol‐F epoxy blend
Author(s) -
Brahmbhatt Priyanka,
Unnikrishnan Jisha,
Sudha J. D.,
Pradhan Subrata
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.34419
Subject(s) - epoxy , cyanate ester , activation energy , cyanate , materials science , thermosetting polymer , curing (chemistry) , order of reaction , reaction rate constant , autocatalysis , arrhenius equation , chemical kinetics , bisphenol a , reaction rate , kinetics , polymer chemistry , chemical engineering , chemistry , composite material , catalysis , organic chemistry , physics , quantum mechanics , engineering
Cyanate ester and Bisphenol‐F blends with manganese acetylacetonate in nonylphenol as catalyst and cocatalysts respectively is an attractive candidate as the insulation impregnation materials for fusion grade magnets winding packs that is required to be operating in moderate irradiated environments in fusion devices like Tokamaks. The curing kinetics of this blend system as a thermosetting polymer has been investigated in this paper in detail for 60 : 40 (epoxy:ester) composition strongly driven from application interests. The order of reactions in both chemical kinetics controlled region as well as diffusion controlled regimes have been experimentally found out using Differential Scanning Calorimetric (DSC) studies. Corresponding rate constants and associated cure kinetics have been consequently determined. The second order kinetic model, as it is found, does not fit in to the epoxy‐cyanate ester reaction mechanism. The results, therefore, have been discussed in the context of widely used autocatalytic models and variable “ n ” kinetics models appropriate for chemical controlled region. The reaction conversion rate d α/ dt of the cyanate ester‐epoxy blend is more rapid in chemical controlled regime compared to that in the diffusion controlled regime. The order of reaction is not constant throughout the reaction and is higher in chemical controlled regime. The variable “ n ” kinetic model has been employed to determine the hypothetical temperature (350.81 K) below which no more curing reaction would occur. The activation energy and the pre‐exponential factors have been determined in the chemical controlled regime using Arrhenius reaction. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012