A novel imidazole derivative curing agent for epoxy resin: Synthesis, characterization, and cure kinetic

Abstract

Abstract A novel imidazole derivative (named as EMI‐ g ‐BGE) was synthesized through the reaction of 2‐ethyl‐4‐methyl imidazole (EMI) and butyl glycidyl ether (BGE) and characterized by elemental analysis, FTIR spectroscopy, and 1 H NMR spectroscopy. The curing kinetic of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) epoxy resin with EMI‐ g ‐BGE as curing agent was studied by nonisothermal DSC technique at different heating rates. Dynamic DSC scans indicated that EMI‐ g ‐BGE was an effective curing agent of epoxy resin. The apparent activation energy E a was 71.8 kJ mol −1 calculated through Kissinger method, and the kinetic parameters were determined by Málek method for the kinetic analysis of the thermal treatment obtained by DSC measurement. A two‐parameter ( m , n ) autocatalytic model (Šesták‐Berggren equation) was found to be the most adequate selected kinetic model. In addition, the predicted curves from the kinetic model fit well with the nonisothermal DSC thermogram. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008