Abstract
The curing kinetics of the modified triglycidyl isocyanurate (TGIC) with various content of N-phenylmaleimido group and carboxylated polyester (CPE) was investigated using dynamic differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The curing kinetic behavior was well described by Sestak-Berggren (SB (m, n)) model. The m order of the curing reaction was varied from 0.229 to 0.356 and n order varied from 1.278 to 2.035, depending on the PMI content. In addition, the isoconversional method of Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose (KAS) was applied to correlate the activation energy (E-a) with the extent of cure. The obtained E-a increased with increasing phenyl maleimide content. As a increases, Ea declined up to alpha approximate to 0.3, then remained almost constant for alpha approximate to 0.3-0.8, and finally increased until completion of reaction, indicating complex reaction mechanism. The thermal stability of the cured modified TGIC/CPE was enhanced with incorporation of phenyl maleimide. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.