Curing kinetics of epoxy resin–imidazole–organic montmorillonite nanocomposites determined by differential scanning calorimetry

The curing kinetics of epoxy resin–imidazole–organic montmorillonite nanocomposites were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) in the isothermal mode. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis indicated the formation of a layered silicate–epoxy nanocomposite. The cure rates for the epoxy resin–imidazole–organic montmorillonite nanocomposite were lower than the values for the neat system at higher temperature (120 and 130°C), as indicated by the relation between the cure conversion and time. These results revealed that the autocatalytic model and the modified Avrami equation are both valid for describing the cure behaviors of epoxy resin–imidazole–organic montmorillonite systems. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 88: 2932–2941, 2003