Modelling and prediction of the diglycidyl ether bisphenol-A/2,2’-dimethyl-4,4’-methylenebis (cyclohexylamine) reaction

Differential scanning calorimetry is used for the analysis and quantitative evaluation of the reaction between diglycidyl ether bisphenol-A and 2,2'-dimethyl-4,4'-methylenebis (cyclohexylamine) according to changes in concentrations of reactants and products. First, this concerned determining the variation in enthalpy of reaction over time for different curing temperatures, plotting of glass transition temperatures versus time, calculation of a polynomial for glass transition temperature against fractional conversion, and the production of plots of fractional conversions versus time. Secondly, the fractional conversion data were used for the kinetic analysis. The line of best fit to these data points revealed an essentially logarithmic relationship that was used to evaluate the reaction rate, dx/dt corresponding to the conversion x, then plot the changes in concentrations (in moles) of all the reactants and products involved in the reaction versus time. This produced a quantitative prediction of the reaction over the curing period.