Network development in epoxy-amine curing systems

摘要

Thermosetting epoxy-amine systems are an extremely important class of polymers with valuable thermal, mechanical and solvent resistance properties. Consequently there has been a number of reports about the evolution of network connectivity and the development of properties. In this contribution to the understanding of epoxy-amine network development, AFM was used to study nanoscale morphological changes in conjunction with amine conversion data obtained using NIR spectroscopy to identify the distribution of crosslink density at increasing levels of network formation. The morphology of the fracture surface was found to be different for each of three stages of network development, reflecting different network structures.