Isoconversional kinetic analysis of a carboxyl terminated polyester resin crosslinked with triglycidyl isocyanurate (TGIC) used in powder coatings from experimental results obtained by DSC and TMDSC

Isoconversional kinetic analysis has been applied to the non-isothermal curing experiments of powder samples used in thermoset powder coatings. The work compares different experimental values obtained from different sets of heating rates by DSC and TMDSC in order to establish how much the experimental process affects the kinetic parameters and the simulated kinetic curves derived from them. The experimental results that were processed by the differential and integral procedures for each set of rates have proved useful in finding the compensation effect between A, the frequency factor, and E, the activation energy in the form ln A=aE+b and the kinetic triplet (E, A, f(α)). The compensation curves found indicate that the kinetic parameters vary with the set of heating rates used and with the extent of the reaction. In the case of the system under study, it was found that once f(α), is fixed, there are a pair of values [E, A] that are singular and independent of the set of rates used for the determination of the kinetic triplet and degree of conversion α.