Effect of aromatic and aliphatic amines as curing agents in sulfone epoxy monomer curing process

The kinetics of the curing of sulfone epoxy (SEP) monomers using aromatic and aliphatic amine curing agents was studied via differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). SEP curing is a two-stage process involving SEP/electron donation and electron donation to either aliphatic or aromatic curing agents. The SEP/electron donation curing process occurred readily since semi-electron-withdrawing curing agents are induced by nucleophilic substitution in the first stage. In the second stage, SEP is cured by the semi-electron-withdrawing curing agents. The kinetic parameters of the curing process were determined using a conversional method derived from Ozawa's and Kissinger's methods, which are typically used for kinetic analysis of data for thermal treatments. The higher melting points and steric bulk of the aromatic curing agents resulted in higher curing activation energies than for the aliphatic curing agents. The aliphatic curing agents also increased the activation energy of the curing process due to their electron-withdrawing and cross-linking properties as well as the viscosity of the epoxy/amine curing system. Cured SEP/aromatic curing agent materials possessed higher glass transition temperatures than cured SEP/aliphatic curing agent materials.