Rheokinetics in curing process of polyfurfuryl alcohol: effect of homologous acid catalysts

Curing reaction of polyfurfuryl alcohol (PFA) resin was investigated using rheological measurements in the presence of different acid catalysts. A homologous series of dicarboxylic acid catalysts with even number of carbons of 2, 4 and 6 were chosen, i.e., oxalic acid (OX, 2 carbon), succinic acid (SU, 4 carbon) and adipic acid (AD, 6 carbon). Acidity of these catalysts in terms of pK _a was in the range of 1.25–4.43. Firstly, non-isothermal curing kinetics were investigated, and then, isothermal studies were performed at three different temperatures using 3 and 5 wt% of each acid catalyst. Isothermal cure behavior was best described by an empirical Arrhenius model of viscosity. An isoconversional method was applied to compute the changes in the effective activation energy as a function of degree of conversion. The change in activation energy at 50–10 kJ mol^?1 was observed for PFA/3 wt% OX system due to the vitrification and diffusion-controlled processes. Gel time, t _gel, was determined as a function of curing temperature, acid catalyst type and its concentration. The gelation time was consistent for all the formulations with an extent of conversion of about 0.7. Significant differences were observed in the curing behavior of resins in the presence of different acid catalysts. Increasing of the curing temperature significantly accelerated the curing process and increased curing rate constant of the PFA resin.