Dielectric Changes During the Curing of Epoxy Resin Based on the Diglycidyl Ether of Bisphenol a(DGEBA) with Diamine

The curing characteristics of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) with diaminodiphenylmethane (DDM) as a curing agent were studied using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), rheometrics mechanical spectrometry (RMS), and dielectric analysis (DEA). The isothermal curing kinetics measured by DSC were well represented with the generalized auto-catalytic reaction model. With the temperature sweep, the inverse relationship between complex viscosity measured by RMS and ionic conductivity obtained from DEA was established indicating that the mobility of free ions represented by the ionic conductivity in DEA measurement and the chain segment motion as revealed by the complex viscosity measured from RMS are equivalent. From isothermal curing measurements at several different temperatures, the ionic conductivity contribution was shown to be dominant in the dielectric loss factor at the early stage of cure. The contribution of the dipole relaxation in dielectric loss factor became larger as the curing further proceeded. The critical degrees of cure, at which the dipolar contribution in the dielectric loss factor starts to appear, increases as isothermal curing temperature is increased. The dielectric relaxation time at the same degree of cure was shorter for a sample cured at higher curing temperature