Thermal behavior of epoxy resins cured with an amine-containing thermoplastic poly(arylene ether sulphone)

In this paper we carried out the crosslinking of the tetraglycidyl-4,4′-diaminodiphenyl methane epoxy resin by using a reactive poly(arylene ether sulphone) as curing agent. Differential scanning calorimetry was used to derive the kinetic parameters of the reactions involved in the cure process and to evaluate the extent of the reaction as a function of time by measuring the total (ΔHT) and the residual heat(ΔHresid) of the resin at different curing times. A comparatively slower reaction was found to take place when the resin was cured with the poly(arylene ether sulphone) that when it was cured with the conventional curing agent 4,4′-diaminodiphenyl sulphone.