Kinetics Study of Curing Epoxy Resins with Hydrolyzed Proteins and the Effect of Denaturants Urea and Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate

The primary goal of this study was to determine the effect of two protein denaturants, urea and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), on the apparent activation energy of cross-linking bisphenol A diglycidyl ether (DGEBA) with hydrolysate of waste animal proteins. Nonisothermal differential scanning calorimetry was used to measure the apparent activation energy of the reactions. The use of SDS resulted in a marked reduction in activation energy, comparable to the reduction in activation energy when a catalyst for epoxy rings, triethylamine (TEA), was used. The addition of urea slightly incieased the activation energy. The heat of reaction increased in the presence of SDS because more reactive sites were made available for curing. This work demonstrates the use of SDS as a protein denaturant additive was an energetically efficient alternative to higher degrees of protein hydrolysis for subsequent curing of DGEBA.