Isothermal and non-isothermal cure kinetics of DGEBA/DDA in the presence of nanosilica particles

فاقد چكيده

Mechanism and kinetics of cure reaction of a diglycidyl ether of a bisphenol-A based epoxy (DGEBA) with with 4,4'- diaminodiphenylamine (DDA) as curing agent were studied by FT-IR and differential scanning calorimetery (DSC) using isothermal and non-isothermal techniques. The effect of amounts of nanosilica(NS) particles as catalyst on the mechanism and kinetic parameters of DGEBA/DDA system was studied. The experimental data showed that the cure reaction is autocatalytic in nature; and all of kinetic parameters of the cure reaction were determined using a semi- empirical equation. The existence of NS particles with hydroxyl groups in the mixture seemed to catalyze the cure reaction and thus the activation energy decreased and the rate constant increased. The water diffusion behavior of cured samples was also invesetigated and the diffusion coefficients calculated by using Fick’s law were compared.