Investigation of modified phenolic hardeners and curing of an epoxy resin by TG-FTir

A TG-FTi.r. system is used to analyse the evolved gases during the decomposition of 2,6-dimethylol-p-cresol (DMPC) and the hexahydrophthalic acid anhydride modified product (HHPA-DMPC). The remaining solid sample is identified by diffuse reflection FTi.r. In accordance with the results of both methods a reaction mechanism is obtained. Furthermore, the curing of diglycidylether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) with HHPA-DMPC or HHPA-phenolnovolac as hardener and N-methylimidazole as accelerator is followed by TG-FTi.r. It could be shown that the amount of water formed in the post-curing period is responsible for the appearance of the sample. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.