Precise determination of percent cure of epoxide polymers and composites via fiber-optic Raman spectroscopy and multivariate analysis

A method for real-time determination of the percent cure of epoxies via in situ fiber-optic Raman spectroscopy has been developed. This method utilizes a probe design developed for real-time monitoring of polymer curing and multivariate analysis to interpret the data and determine percent cure. This method was demonstrated to be reliable to +/-0.54% of cure in laboratory samples over a 50-99% cure range. A preliminary study measuring cure percentage in an industrial, glass-reinforced composite has been shown to be reliable to +/-0.82% in the 40-90% cure range.