Study of crosslinking AMS/DGEBA system by FTIR

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to follow the curing of the diglycidylether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) typical epoxide resin by poly(styrene-alt-maleic anhydride) (AMS), the reaction being accelerated by triethylamine (TEA) in the presence of methanol. The study was done in an isothermal mode for four temperatures: 85, 82, 80, and 75°C. We followed, for each temperature, the variation of the area of the epoxy band (916 cm−1) versus time. After 200 min of reaction, the degree of conversion of epoxy is 0.5 at 85°C. A postcure at 100°C during 96 h allows one to reach a total conversion of epoxy. The reaction mechanism involves three steps to form the tridimensional network. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 69: 1167–1178, 1998