Novel silicone–phenyl contained amine curing agent for epoxy resin: 1. Non-isothermal cure and thermal decomposition

• A novel silicone–phenyl contained aliphatic polyamine was first time employed as the curing agent of epoxy resin.
• The non-isothermal curing kinetics of DGEBA/PSPA was investigated with DSC.
• The isoconversional method was used to analyze the effective activation of the curing reaction.
• Thermo gravimetric analysis showed the cured DGEBA/PSPA was thermally stable up to 380 °C.

A novel type of silicone–phenyl contained aliphatic polyamine (PSPA) was originally synthesized and employed as the curing agent for bisphenol A epoxy resin (DGEBA). The non-isothermal curing behavior of DGEBA/PSPA was systematically characterized with differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), showing that the reaction exothermic peak temperature increased with the increasing heating rate. The isoconversional Vyazovkin method was used to analyze the curing kinetics, giving the effective activation energy Eα. The Eα rapidly decreased at the initial curing stage, after which it kept stable and decreased quickly to the end. In addition, thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) showed that the cured DGEBA/PSPA network was thermally stable up to 380 °C.