Characterization and kinetic study of Diels-Alder reaction: Detailed study on N-phenylmaleimide and furan based benzoxazine with potential self-healing application

The Diels-Alder reaction between N-phenylmaleimide and benzoxazine bearing furan group was investigated for the purpose of successful appliance of self-healing in benzoxazine polymer networks. The reaction as a function of temperature/time was performed in molten state and in a solution, where also the kinetic study was performed. The Diels-Alder reaction leads to a mixture of two diastereomers: endo presented at lower cyclo-reversion temperature and exo at higher. Therefore, the conversion rates and exo/endo ratio were studied in detail for both systems. For instance, in molten state the Diels-Alder reaction was triggered by the temperature of the melting point at 60 °C with exo/endo ratio preferable to the endo adduct. The study of the kinetics in a solution revealed that the Diels-Alder reaction followed typical bimolecular reversible second-order reaction. The activation energies were close to the previous literature data; 48.4 and 51.9 kJ·mol–1 for Diels-Alder reaction, and 91.0 and 102.3 kJ·mol–1 for retro-Diels-Alder reaction, in acetonitrile and chloroform, respectively. The reaction equilibrium in a solution is much more affected by the retro-Diels-Alder reaction than in a molten state. This study shows detailed investigation of DA reaction and provides beneficial knowledge for further use in self-healing polymer networks