Study of the Cure Reaction of DGEBA/ABS Blend in the Presence of Aromatic Diamine

The kinetics and mechanism of cure react ion of DGESA with 4,4 oxydianiline( ODA) as curing agent in the presence of thermoplastic ASS was studied using isothermal FTIR and dynamic DSC techniques. The activation energy (Ea) by FTIR analysis was evaluated as 36 kJ/mol and decreased to 31 kJ/mol when the amount of ASS was increased from 10% to 30% by weight. Thermodynamic parameters (LlH#, LlS#, and LlG#) for isothermal curing were calculated and the value of LlG# did not change significantly by increasing the amount of ASS , while it increased with increas ing isothermal curing temperature. The maximum temperature (Tp) of the exothermal peak in DSC thermogram increased with increasing heating rate. The values of Ea by using DSC data and Kissinger, Ozawa-Flynn-Wall, and isoconversional equations were in the range of 55-65 kJ/mol. There was a small decrease in the Ea value by increasing the amount of ASS which can be related to the ease of diffusion of functional groups through the network and/or the catalytic influence of the nitrile group (-CN) on the mechanism of cure reaction.