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.