| Abstract: | The cure of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) and a homologous series of poly(ethylene oxide) diglycidyl ether (PEODE) epoxy resins with 4,4′‐diaminodiphenyl sulfone (DDS) was studied by scanning and isothermal differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The heat of polymerization was relatively independent of monomer structure and chain length when determined by isothermal DSC. Variations in the heats of polymerization determined by the scanning method were attributed to degradative reactions at higher temperatures during the scan. The activation energies determined by scanning DSC experiments were relatively constant at 61 ± 3 kJ/mol. However, using an isothermal cure method, the activation energies were found to vary with monomer structure and extent of cure. The isothermal kinetics were analyzed in terms of the autocatalytic model on the basis of competing reaction paths involving catalysis by either initial impurities or hydroxyl groups produced in situ. The activation energies of both reaction paths were found to vary with monomer structure and degree of conversion. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 72: 1479–1488, 1999 |
