Kinetic and thermodynamic studies of an epoxy system diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A/1,2 diamine cyclohexane

Abstract

The curing reaction of a system consisting of a purified diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A (BADGE, n = 0) and 1,2 diamine cyclohexane (DCH) was studied with a differential scanning calorimeter. The objective of this article was twofold: a kinetic study from which parameters such as reaction orders, rate constants, and activation energies were determined; and a thermodynamic study where values of enthalpy (ΔH#), entropy (ΔS#), and Gibbs free energy (ΔG#) changes were calculated. This second study showed that an n-order path reaction mechanism was more favored than the autocatalyzed mechanism above 338 K. This fact was also checked when plotting rate constant ratio against temperature. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 63: 635–641, 1997