Influence of the addition of erbium and ytterbium triflates in the curing kinetics of a DGEBA/<Emphasis Type="Italic">o</Emphasis>-tolybiguanide powder mixture

Solid bisphenol-A epoxy resin (DGEBA) of medium molecular mass was cured using o-tolylbiguanide (TBG) as cross-linking agent. In order to improve the kinetics of the reactive system, two Lewis acid catalysts (erbium(III) and ytterbium(III) trifluoromethanesulfonates) were added in proportions of 1 phr. The kinetic study was performed by dynamic scanning calorimetry (DSC) and the complete kinetic triplet (E, A and g(α)) determined. The kinetic analysis was performed with an integral isoconversional procedure (model-free), and the kinetic model was determined by the Coats-Redfern method and through the compensation effect (IKR). All the systems followed the m=1.5/n=0.5 isothermal curing model simulated from non-isothermal experiments. The addition of a little proportion of ytterbium or erbium triflates accelerated the curing process. In order to extract further information about the role of the lanthanide triflates added to epoxy/TBG systems, the kinetic results were compared with our previous kinetic studies made on DGEBA/lanthanide triflates initiated systems.