Effect of binder powders added to carbon fiber reinforcements on the chemoreology of an epoxy resin for composites

The growing use of reinforcement preforms during composite manufacturing requires resin soluble binders which significantly affect the properties of crosslinking thermosetting resins. In this study, for the first time the influence of an epoxy preforming binder on the curing kinetics and chemorheological behavior of a crosslinking epoxy matrix was studied. The results proved that the addition of the binder lead to a significant change of the curing behavior suggesting that the epoxy binder was an essential component needed to complete the stoichiometry of the resin-hardener mixture. The developed kinetic and chemorheological model of the experimental results could be used for process optimization.