Curing study of epoxy resin by new aromatic amine functional curing agents along with mechanical and thermal evaluation

To cure diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) resin, with new curing agents like amine functional aniline formaldehyde condensates (AFAFC) and amine functional chloroaniline formaldehyde condensates (AFCFC) as a function of concentration of the curing agents, an investigation was carried out. The AFAFC and AFCFC were synthesized from the reaction of aniline and formaldehyde and chloroaniline and formaldehyde, respectively, in acid medium and characterized by FT-IR and NMR spectroscopic analyses, elemental analysis, viscosity measurements, mole of primary and secondary amine analysis and gel permeation chromatography (GPC) analysis. Equimolecular mixture of curing agent and epoxy resin was subjected to curing reaction and the reaction was followed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis. The DSC exotherms showed the occurrence of effective curing reaction and the cure kinetics studied from those exotherms revealed that the curing reactions were first order. The mechanical properties, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) of cured epoxy were also reported.