CURING AND DEGRADATION BEHAVIOR OF VINYL ESTERS OF CYCLOALIPHATIC EPOXY RESINS

Curing and degradation behavior of two unsaturated esters based on cycloaliphatic epoxy resin containing glycidyl epoxy group (C1E) and epoxy cyclohexane group (C2E)were studied using DSC and TGA Techniques. DSC thermograms of ester C1E and C2E mixed with reactive styrene (40% w/w) and initiator benzoyl peroxide (2%) shows that the curing of ester C2E takes place at higher temperature range in comparison to C1E due to their dense rigid structure. The degradation behavior of cured esters are studied using thermal analyst 2000 equipped with 2950 thermal gravimetric analysis at heating rate 100C min-1. The TG and DTG thermogram of both esters show single step degradation. The temperature of 1-10% weight loss for both ester was studied from TGA. Thethermal stability of the ester C2E was found to be higher than that of C1E.