| Abstract: | The dielectric permittivity ε′ and loss ε″ of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A thermosets cured with nonstoichiometric amounts of diamino-diphenyl methane have been measured during the course of their chemical reactions from the sol to gel to glass-formation regions. ε′ monotonically decreases with time and ε″ initially decreases, increases to a peak value, and finally decreases to extremely low values characteristic of the glassy state. The initial decrease in ε″ is due to the decrease in the dc conductivity, and the peak is due to the dipolar reorientation. The appearance of these features shifts to longer time when the thermoset is stoichiometrically starved by decreasing the amount of the curing agent and, at a molar ratio of 4 : 1 of the epoxide to diamine, the ε″ peak does not appear during the curing process. Complex plane plots of ε′ and ε″ have the shape of an arc in all cases except when the molar ratio of the epoxide to diamine is 4 : 1. The dielectric consequences of the chemical changes with time during the crosslinking of a thermoset are analogous to the frequency dependence of ε″ of a condensed phase. The time dependence of ε″ follows a stretched exponential decay, ?(t = exp ? (t/τ)γ], where 0 < γ < 1. The parameter decreases with decreasing amine content. ε″ has been analyzed to obtain the increase in the relaxation time as curing progresses. A representation of ε* in terms of electrical modulus M* shows the occurrence of, first a Maxwell relaxation due to dc conductivity, and second a dipolar relaxation, during the period of a typical isothermal cure. Changes in the features of the isothermal cure that occur on changing the amount of the curing agent are discussed in terms of network formation in the thermoset, and the change in the electrical conductivity with curing time has been analyzed in terms of both a power law for gel formation and by a new equation that suggests an approach toward a singularity. |
