Curing of epoxy resin cross-linked in the presence of two different diamine hardeners

Epoxy resins have been widely used for coatings, electronic materials, adhesives, and matrices for many composites because of their outstanding mechanical properties, high adhesion strength, good heat resistance, and high electrical resistance. The final properties of cured epoxy resins are affected by the type of epoxy resin, curing agent, and curing process.1,2 Moreover, the choice of a hardener depends on the required performance of the thermosets or on the type of processing tool used to make pieces like thermosets composite parts.3,4 In this work, an epoxy resin diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) is cross-linked with the help of alicyclic amine isophorone diamine (IPDA) and polyetheramine by different reactivities (Fig. 1). The ratio of the two amines is varied while keeping the stoichiometry of the epoxy/amino hydrogen groups constant. The epoxy-amine systems were characterized by the FTIR spectral analysis and thermal behaviour of the cured samples was evaluated with thermogravimetric analysis (TGA).

Keywords:

Epoxy thermosets , diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A , Isophorone diamine , polyetheramine.