Kinetics and mechanism of the epoxide-amine polyaddition

The mechanism and kinetics of the epoxide-amine polyaddition reaction have been studied by isothermal and scanning DSC measurements. The initial concentrations of the reactants (epoxides: bisphenol-A-diglycidyl ether (DGEBA) and phenyl glycidyl ether (PGE), amines: N,N'-dibenzylethylenediamine (DBED) and aniline) in our model systems have been strongly varied. The suggested kinetic model describes the reaction behavior of mixtures with any initial epoxide/amine ratios over the whole range of cure by a single parameter set. To find the optimum kinetic parameters, we have solved the set of differential equations numerically by the technique of multivariate non-linear regression (Mult-NLR). Excellent agreement was obtained between calculated and experimental curves. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.