Physical aging effect on thermal and mechanical properties of a series of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A (DGEBA)/diaminodiphenylmethane (DDM) systems has been investigated as a function of conversion, induced by cure, and aging time. The isothermal curing was carried out in one step at 115°C for various times. Samples were aged at 100°C for periods of time from 240 to 4320 min. Since physical aging causes structural changes which affect the mechanical performance as well as the thermodynamic properties of the material, DSC and DMTA techniques are complementary in monitoring physical aging processes. Through Differencial Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) it was found that the extent of physical aging can be associated with the area of the endothermic peak which appears within the glass transition region. The enthalpy relaxation (area of the peak) increases gradually with aging time. The Dynamic Mechanical Thermal Analysis (DMTA) results showed that the elastic modulus (E') increases with aging time. Aging rates were obtained through the endothermic peak temperature, through the storage modulus E'and through the glass transition temperature and displayed a decrease with increasing conversion degree. The DMTA technique is very sensitive to structural changes in the investigated epoxy systems due to curing and physical aging . The DMTA results obtained from mixtures cured according to different thermal histories underline the importance of adequate selection of curing conditions in order to obtain the optimum properties from these materials. The importance of the observed phenomena is considered in view of the widespread use of epoxy resins.
Epoxy resins; physical aging; DSC; DMTA
