Kinetics of curing and thermal degradation of hyperbranched epoxy (HTDE)/diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A epoxy hybrid resin.

Hyperbranched epoxy resin (HTDE) has relatively low viscosity and high molecular mass and holds great promise as a functional additive for enhancing the strength and toughness of thermosetting resins. In this work, the curing and thermal degradation kinetics of HTDE/diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A epoxy (DGEBA) hybrid resin were studied in detail using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TG) techniques by Coats–Redfern model. The effect of molecular mass or generation and content of HTME on the activation energy, reaction order, and curing time were discussed; the results indicated that HTDE could accelerate the curing speed and reduce the activation energy and reaction order of the curing reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]