The kinetic study and thermal characterization of epoxy resins crosslinked with amino carboxylic acids

• Curing properties of epoxy resins with amino acids.
• Simultaneous TG/FT-IR/MS analysis of crosslinked resins.
• Life time prediction of the crosslinked products.

The curing kinetics and thermal properties of two epoxy resins crosslinked with two amino acids (at molar ratio epoxy ring/amine or carboxylic proton 1/1), by non-isothermal differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and simultaneous TG/FT-IR/MS analysis were studied. The kinetic analysis of the curing reactions was made using the variable peak exotherm methods of Flynn–Wall–Ozawa and Kissinger and multivariate non-linear regression. The most probable kinetic model and kinetic parameters of the degradation process using a multivariate non-linear regression program (Netzsch Thermokinetics software) were determined. The kinetic parameters and the thermal degradation mechanisms for crosslinked resins taking place in 2 and 3 steps, depending on the chemical structure of the sample were identified.