Thermochimica Acta, Vol.441, No.1, 45-52, 2006
Addition effect of erbiurn(III) trifluoromethanesulfonate in the homopolymerization kinetics of a DGEBA resin
Solid bisphenol-A epoxy resin of medium molecular weight was cured using a Lewis acid initiator (erbium(III) trifluoromethanesulfonate) in three different proportions (0.5, 1 and 2 phr). A kinetic study was performed in a differential scanning calorimeter. The complete kinetic triplet was determined (activation energy, pre-exponential factor, and integral function of the degree of conversion) for each system. A kinetic analysis was performed with an integral isoconversional procedure (model-free), and the kinetic model was determined both with the Coats-Redfern method (the obtained isoconversional E value being accepted as the effective activation energy) and through the compensation effect. All the systems followed the same isothermal curing model simulated from non-isothermal ones. The "nucleation and growth" Avrami kinetic model A(3/2) has been proposed as the polymerization kinetic model. The addition of initiator accelerated the reaction having higher influence when low temperatures were applied. (C) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.