Effect of the addition of a polycarbonate on the cure of an epoxy thermoset system

Abstract

During the cure of a thermoset-thermoplastic blend two-phase morphologies may be formed. The phase separation process can be controlled by manipulation of the rate of polymerization of the thermoset system. In this work, the effect of the addition of different amounts of polycarbonate (PC) on the rheokinetics of an epoxy thermoset system is presented. The reactive system used was diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A cured with 4-4 diaminodiphenylsulfone. The blends of the PC and the epoxy resin were prepared using two different procedures: (a) hot melt blending and (b) dissolution in a common solvent. The kinetics was followed by differential scanning calorimetry and the change in the rheological properties during the curing by dynamic rheometry.