Thermal stability and kinetics analysis of rubber‐modified epoxy resin by high‐resolution thermogravimetric analysis

Abstract A dynamic heating rate mode of high‐resolution thermogravimetric analysis was used to study the thermal and thermal‐oxidative stability, as well as kinetics analyses, of a model liquid rubber‐modified epoxy resin, Ep/CTBN, made up of bisphenol A diglycidyl ether‐based epoxy and carboxyl‐terminated butadiene acrylonitrile rubber (CTBN). Results show that the thermal degradation of Ep/CTBN resin in nitrogen and air consists of two and three independent steps, respectively. Moreover, Ep/CTBN has a higher initial degradation temperature and higher activation energy than those of pure epoxy resin in both gases, indicating that the addition of CTBN to epoxy can improve the thermal and thermal‐oxidative stability of pristine epoxy resin. Kinetic parameters such as activation energy, reaction order, and preexponential factor of each degradation step of both Ep/CTBN and pure epoxy resins in air and nitrogen were calculated. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 89: 3594–3600, 2003