Cure kinetics of an epoxy‐novolac molding compound

Abstract

Abstract The cure reaction of an epoxy‐novolac molding compound was studied by means of differential scanning calorimetry using the dynamic (i.e., temperature scanning) approach. Based on a modified version of Friedman's method, a procedure aiming at the phenomenological description of cure kinetics was developed. This method was found capable of following satisfactorily the thermokinetics of the molding compound. Our results indicate that the cure reaction is autocatalytic in nature and does not follow simple n th‐order kinetics.