In this work we studied the effect of the addition of the linear thermoplastic polyphenyl sulfone (PPSU) on the cure kinetics and the thermal properties of a resin based on diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A (DGEBA), cured with 4,4´-diaminodiphenyl sulfone (DDS). The kinetic study and the characterization process have been carried out by using differential scanning calorimetry, DSC, and temperature modulated DSC (TMDSC), under isothermal and dynamic conditions. The curing kinetics was discussed in the framework of three kinetic models: Kissinger, Flynn-Wall-Ozawa, and the model of reaction of order n. To describe the cured reaction in its last stage, we have used the semiempirical relationship proposed by Chern and Poehlein to take into account the influence of diffusion on the reaction rate. The cure mechanism for the studied system obeyed an order n reaction kinetics, regardless of PPSU content, and all of them become far more diffusion controlled at higher contents of PPSU and lower cure temperatures. The vitrification time of the resins exhibited a strong dependence on the PPSU content in the semi-IPN systems.
Kinetic; diffusion; reaction
