Curing Kinetics of Bisphenol A-Type Epoxy Resin/Aromatic Amine Curing Agent-Epoxy Resin System

Two types of bisphenol A epoxy resins, E44 and E51, were cured using 4,4’- diaminodiphenylmethane (DDM) and 4,4’-diaminodiphenyl sulfone (DDS), respectively. The curing kinetics were analyzed by means of non-isothermal differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The apparent activation energies of the epoxy curing systems were calculated using the Starink method. Furthermore, a two-parameter autocatalytic model was employed to determine the reaction rate equations, which exhibited excellent agreement with the experimental data, thereby confirming its applicability in describing the curing behavior. The relationship between the theoretically calculated activation energy and the processing rheology was investigated to provide guidance for the forming and processing of the resin system.