NonisothermalDSC Study of Epoxy Resins Cured withHydrolyzed Specified Risk Material.

The effects of salt, molecular weightand viscosity, and mass ratioon the apparent activation energy of the cross-linking reaction ofepoxy resins and protein hydrolysate were studied by nonisothermaldifferential scanning calorimetry. The Kissinger equation, the model-freeisoconversional method, and the autocatalytic model were used to analyzethe kinetic data. The presence of salts contributed to an increasein the apparent activation energy. The curing of epoxy resins withlower molecular weight protein hydrolysates was found to have loweractivation energy and order of reaction. An increase in the concentrationof curing groups resulted in a small increase in the order of reaction.The activation energy of curing bisphenol A diglycidyl ether (DGEBA),with viscosity 500–700 cP, was found to be significantly higherthan the curing activation energy of polypropylene glycol diglycidylether (PPGDE), which has a viscosity of 50 cP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]