Moisture absorption by cyanate ester modified epoxy resin matrices. Part I. Effect of spiking parameters

The moisture absorption of cyanate ester modified epoxy resin matrices has been studied under thermal spiking conditions. Enhanced moisture absorption has been observed at spike-temperatures above 120 °C. The results of the desorption studies on both control specimens and the spiked specimens showed that some of the water molecules remained entrained in the polymer. It is postulated that this water could be associated with that which is hydrogen bonded or from the hydrolysis of isolated residual cyanate ester groups because the concentration of entrained water remains constant at spike-temperatures below 180 °C. Above 180 °C a thermally activated process, leading to chain scission as indicated by a reduced recoverability of the glass transition temperature (T_g) on drying.On isothermal resorption, the moisture concentration was found to be similar to that achieved through thermal spiking, showing that the entrained water at the lower spike-temperatures can also be achieved under mild conditions. The T_g is reversibly recovered to within 5 °C, which indicates a degree of relaxation rather than degradation. The moisture diffusion coefficient estimated from the resorption curves is lower than those estimated from the absorption and desorption curves. The isothermal resorption diffusion coefficient also decreased with increasing spike temperature. It is proposed that thermal spiking induced a relaxation of the network but as the spike-temperature approaches the transition region of the wet polymer, further hydrolytically induced relaxation events become feasible.