| Abstract: | Physical aging of a thermoset system based on bisphenol-A epoxy (DER 1 Trademark of The Dow Chemical Company. 383) and tetrabromobisphenol-A cured with sulfanilamide and diaminodiphenylsulfone was studied as a function of cure history. Changes in the dynamic mechanical spectra for the thermoset system were correlated to changes in relative toughness associated with physical aging as determined by plane-strain biaxial tension-compression yield measurements. It was found that master curves, generated by using tan δ data obtained in the β relaxation temperature regime, are well related to the corresponding changes in mechanical properties and, hence, have predictive value. Relative toughness decreases and compressive yield increases with decreasing tan 5 because of decreased molecular segmental mobility. The relative extent of physical aging for the as-cast thermosets was shown to be linearly related to the cure time. |
