Frontal polymerization of a cyanate ester

Thermal frontal polymerization is an exothermic process that uses a propagating wave to polymerize monomers via an external heat source, such as a soldering iron, to initiate front propagation. Herein, for the first time, the curing of a cyanate ester via thermal frontal polymerization is described with two different external heat sources. However, issues of bubbling due to vaporization of the amine catalyst generally resulted in incomplete frontal polymerization when a soldering iron was used as the external heat source. To counter this issue, dual‐strip polymerization systems were used, wherein the heat from the exothermic polymerization of a free‐radical system was used to initiate the frontal polymerization of a cyanate ester system with an amine catalyst. As a result, complete frontal polymerization occurred. Additionally, the effect of the width of the acrylate strip and its impact on the front temperature, initial velocity, and steady‐state velocity of the adjacent cyanate ester system were studied. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013