A Kinetic Study of Biphenyl Type Epoxy-Xylok Resin System with Different Kinds of Catalysts

The investigation of cure kinetics of biphenyl epoxy (4,4-diglycidyloxy-3,3,5,5-tetramethyl biphenyl)-xylok resin system with four different catalysts was performed by differential scanning calorimeter using an isothermal approach. All kinetic parameters of the curing reaction including the reaction order, activation energy and rate constant were calculated and reported. The results indicate that the curing reaction of the formulations using triphenylphosphine (TPP) and 1-benzyl-2-methylimidazole (1B2MI) as a catalyst proceeds through a first order kinetic mechanism, whereas that of the formulations using diazabicycloundecene (DBU) and tetraphenyl phosphonium tetraphenyl borate (TPP-TPB) proceeds by an autocatalytic kinetic mechanism. To describe the cure reaction in the latter stage, we have used the semiempirical relationship proposed by Chern and Poehlein. By combining an nth order kinetic model or an autocatalytic model with a diffusion factor, it is possible to predict the cure kinetics of each catalytic system over the whole range of conversion.