The kinetics of polymerization of
Bisphenol-A diglycidyl ether
(DGEBA), a well-known epoxy resin, with two ionic amines 1-(3-aminopropyl)-3-butylimidazolium
bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide ([apbim][NTf2]) and the tetrabutylammonium leucine ([N4444][Leu])
have been studied with the use of differential scanning calorimetry
(DSC) and broadband dielectric spectroscopy (BDS) at various temperatures.
We found many fundamental differences between the progress of this
reaction with respect to the classical system (curing of epoxy resin
with ordinary nonconducting hardeners). One of the most significant
differences is related to the mechanism of polymerization. It is worthwhile
to mention that usually the autocatalytic model is used to describe
the curing of DGEBA with ordinary amines. However, herein, the kinetic
curves followed a clearly exponential shape characteristic of first-order
kinetics. We claim that the change in mechanism of polymerization
is related to the presence of a conducting amine that acts as both
the substrate and the catalyst of this specific chemical conversion.
Also, it is presented that the pace of the reaction only weakly depends
on temperature, which is reflected in the relatively low activation
energy. On the other hand, the degree of monomer conversion stays
around 45%–70% as typically reported for the polymerization
of DGEBA with nonconducting hardeners. In addition, we measured the
time evolution of dc conductivity as the reaction proceeded and observed
that a change in this parameter correlates very well with the monomer
conversion in contrast to the reaction of nonconducting systems. Finally,
ionic conductivity of the resulted cured samples was investigated
and found to be quite significant at the glass transition temperature
with respect to other polymerized ionic liquids.