Cure Characterization of Soybean Oil-Styrene-Divinylbenzene Thermosetting Copolymers

Bio-based resins are an alternative to petroleum-based resins in the production of fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs) by processes such as pultrusion. A detailed understanding of the cure behavior of the resin is essential to determine the process variables for production of FRPs. In this work, the cure kinetics of soybean oil-styrene-divinylbenzene thermosetting polymers is characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) measurements. By varying the concentration of the cationic initiator from 1 to 3 weight percent (wt %), the most viable resin composition for pultrusion is identified. The ability of phenomenological reaction models to describe the DSC measurements for the optimum resin composition is tested and kinetic equations, which can be used to determine the degree of cure at any temperature and time, are determined. (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 113: 1042-1049, 2009