Curing kinetics and mechanical properties of fast curing epoxy resins with isophorone diamine and N‐(3‐aminopropyl)‐imidazole

ABSTRACT Fast curing epoxy resins were prepared by the reactions of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A with isophorone diamine (IPD) and N ‐(3‐aminopropyl)‐imidazole (API), and their curing kinetics and mechanical properties influenced by IPD content were also investigated. The analysis of curing kinetics was based on the nonisothermal differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) data with the typical Kissinger, Ozawa, and Flynn–Wall–Ozawa models, respectively. The glass‐transition temperature was also measured by the same technique. Additionally, the mechanical properties including flexural, impact, and tensile performances were tested, and the curing time was estimated by isothermal DSC. The degree of cure (α) dependency of activation energy ( E a ) revealed the complexity of curing reaction. Detailed analysis of the curing kinetics at the molecular level indicated that the dependence of E a on the α was a combined effect of addition reaction, autocatalytic reaction, viscosity, and steric hindrance. From the nonisothermal curves, the curing reaction mechanism could be proposed according to the increasingly obvious low temperature peaks generated by the addition reaction of epoxy group with the primary amines in API and IPD molecules. Using the preferred resin formulation, the resin system could be cured within 10 min at 120 °C with a relatively good mechanical performance. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136 , 47950.