Curing of cyanate ester resin: a novel approach based on FTIR spectroscopy and comparison with other techniques

The aim of this study is to demonstrate a new sampling methodology to study resin curing by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The principle of this novel approach consists in curing resin directly into the KBr pellet. In this method, only one pellet is needed during the treatment time. This approach is validated in the case of isothermal curing. We investigate the effects of the chemical nature of the resin, the amount of catalyst and epoxy added. All results are compared with the previous literature data and are in excellent agreement. Curing measurements are validated by thermal data obtained by differential scanning calorimetry. Then, in the last part, kinetic constant of cyanate ester resin curing is calculated by means of FTIR experimental data, and kinetic model available in the literature is verified. This kinetic approach has allowed us to compare our FTIR data with dynamic mechanical and dielectric measurements.