Kinetic Method by Using Calorimetry to Mechanism of Epoxy-amine Cure Reaction

Using calorimetric method to reaction kinetics in solventless system, the quantitative aspects of the epoxy ring opening in the reaction between phenyl glycidyl ether and aniline have been discussed. Using the Mangelsdorf method we have found that this reaction system gives fairly clean kinetics through whole process. The kinetic picture of this reaction system is akin to diepoxy-diamine cure mechanism. It was detected kinetically, apart from exothermic effect of the reaction of the epoxy ring opening, the existence another exothermic process at the last stages of the reaction. The latter also contributes to the total heat. The contribution of this thermal effect to the total heat is found to be dependent on the reactant ratio. The data for the reaction between phenyl glycidyl ether and aniline could not be fitted well if uncatalyzed mechanism was ignored. Thus, the reaction of epoxy ring opening by aniline occurs by two concurrent pathways: one is uncatalyzed and the other, the main, is autocatalyzed. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.