Abstract: The cure kinetics of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A(DGEBA) with hyperbranched poly(3-hydroxyphenyl) phosphate(HHPP) as the curing agent was investigated by means of non-isothermal differential scanning calorimetry(DSC) at various heating rates. The results were compared with the corresponding results by using 1,3-dihydroxybenzene(DHB) as a model compound. The results show that HHPP can enhance the cure reaction of DGEBA, resulting in the decrease of the peak temperature of the curing curve as well as the decrease of the activation energy because of the flexible -P-O- groups in the backbone of HHPP. However, both the activation energy of the cured polymer and the peak temperature of the curing curve are increased with DHB as a curing agent. The cure kinetics of the DGEBA/HHPP system was calculated by using the isoconversional method given by Málek. It was found that the two-parameter autocatalytic model(Šesták-Berggren equation) is the most adequate one to describe the cure kinetics of the studied system at various heating rates. The obtained non-isothermal DSC curves from the experimental data show the results being accordant with those theoretically calculated.

Key words: Hyperbranched polyphosphate, Cure kinetics, Epoxy resin, Non-isothermal DSC