Reaction kinetics and modeling of photoinitiated cationic polymerization of an alicyclic based diglycidyl ether

• Photocationic polymerization of alicyclic based diglycidyl ether was carried out.
• Kinetic parameters were influenced by gelation and diffusional restrictions.
• Applicability of autocatalytic model was established by nonlinear regression.
• System showed higher activation energy than cycloaliphatic and aromatic diepoxides.

Photoinitiated cationic polymerization of cycloaliphatic diepoxides had received tremendous attention, while studies with lesser polymerizable diglycidyl ethers are comparatively less reported. The present work deals with the photoinitiated cationic polymerization of cyclohexane dimethanol diglycidyl ether followed by estimation of kinetic parameters. The effects of concentration of photoinitiator and temperature on curing performance were studied using photo differential scanning calorimeter or photo DSC with polychromatic radiation. It was observed that the rate of polymerization as well as ultimate conversion increased with increasing concentration of photoinitiator and temperature. The influences of gelation as well as diffusional restrictions have remarkable effect on cure performance. The kinetic parameters as per autocatalytic kinetic model were studied by Levenberg–Marquardt nonlinear regression method instead of conventional linear method for obtaining more accurate values of apparent rate constant. It was observed that the model fits with data from initial stages to almost towards the end of the reaction. The activation energy was found to be higher than the values reported for more reactive cycloaliphatic diepoxides. The value of pre-exponential factor increased with increase in activation energy showing influence of gelation at early stages of reaction.