ISSN 1017-2548(Print)
ISSN 2234-8530(Online)
Volume 46, Number 3
JKCSEZ 46(3)
June 20, 2002 

In this work, the cure kinetics and rheological and mechanical properties of diglycidylether of bispheonol A (DGEBA, EP)/polyurethane (PU) blends were investigated. The 1 wt% N-benzylpyrazinium hexafluoroantiminate (BPH) was used as a latent thermal catalyst. Latent properties were performed by measurement of the conversion as a function of reaction temperature using DSC. And the rheological properties of the blend systems were investigated under isothermal conditions using a rheometer. Crosslinking activating energies (E_c) were also determined from the Arrhenius equation based on gel time and curing temperature. The impact strengths were measured as mechanical properties of the casting specimens. The BPH in the blend systems could be an excellent latent thermal catalyst without any co-initiator. The rheological results showed that Ec was highest when PU content was 30 wt% which was in good agreement with the impact strengths. This was probably due to the intermolecular hydrogen bonding between the hydroxyl group in PU and EP, resulting in increasing the crosslinking density.