Microwave ionothermal synthesis of ZIF-61 and its application on the curing process of cyanate ester (CE)

•ZIF-61 was synthesized by microwave-assisted ionothermal method.•This method avoids organic solvent, high pressure and long time.•The effect of temperature and time for the growth of crystals was analyzed.•ZIF-61 can effectively accelerate the curing of CE.•The curing kinetic equation of ZIF-61/CE was obtained by calculating.

ZIF-61 has been first synthesized under microwave irradiation, by using 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ([Bmim]BF4) as solvent and template. The effect of reaction temperature and microwave irradiation time on the crystallinity of samples was discussed in detail. High crystallinity of ZIF-61 was obtained by microwave ionothermal method at 140 °C for 40 min. Due to DSC results, ZIF-61 shows efficient catalytic performance for the curing reaction of CE. The peak temperature of ZIF-61/CE (2%) has been reduced ca.130 °C than pure CE. And a more narrow curing temperature range (shrinking ca.200 °C than pure CE) has been reached which further proves that ZIF-61 has strong catalytic property for CE. Curing kinetic equation was also calculated by Kissinger and Ozawa equations with the data of non-isothermal DSC.