Investigation of curing kinetics of various cycloaliphatic epoxy resins using dynamic thermal analysis

Curing reactions of three cycloaliphatic epoxy resins with methyltetrahydrophthalic anhydride (MTHPA) was investigated by differential scanning calorimetry at different heating rates. Activation energy was calculated based on Kissinger method and varied in the range of 67–72 kJ/mol depending on sample. The curing kinetic behavior was well described by Sestak–Berggren (SB) model and the order of the curing reaction is observed to be from 0.02 to 2.11 according to sample.