DSC and curing kinetics of epoxy resin using cyclohexanediol diglycidyl ether as active diluents

Curing reactions of epoxy resin (diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A) with curing agent polyamido-amine, using cyclohexanediol diglycidyl ether as active diluents, was investigated by non-isothermal differential scanning calorimetry at different heating rates. Activation energy was calculated based on Kissinger method, and the results showed that Ea changed from 68.01 to 54.84 kJ mol−1 after the diluents was added, which reduced about 20 %. Malek method was used to deduce the probable mechanism function and the results indicated that Sestak–Berggren model is fairly coincident with the experimental data.