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Photoinduced cationic frontal polymerization of epoxy–carbon fibre composites
Author(s) -
Sangermano Marco,
Antonazzo Ippazio,
Sisca Lorenzo,
Carello Massimiliana
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
polymer international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.592
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1097-0126
pISSN - 0959-8103
DOI - 10.1002/pi.5875
Subject(s) - materials science , composite material , epoxy , cationic polymerization , curing (chemistry) , polymerization , photoinitiator , composite number , photopolymer , thermal , polymer chemistry , polymer , monomer , physics , meteorology
UV‐activated frontal polymerization was exploited for the preparation of epoxy–carbon fibre composites. The curing process was investigated showing the frontal behaviour, and the final properties of UV‐cured composites were compared with those of the same composites obtained by thermal curing in the presence of amine as hardener. The best curing formulations were designed, defining the photoinitiator‐to‐thermal initiator ratio, which was 1.5:1.5. It was observed that the presence of the carbon fibres induced an acceleration of the front velocity. By comparing the thermomechanical properties of the thermally cured composite and the same composite crosslinked using the frontal process, we could observe that the latter showed higher T g value and lower σ f . This was attributed to the formation of a different polymeric network structure. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry