Heats of reaction and kinetics of a thermoset polyester

The curing reaction of a thermoset polyester was investigated by using the isothermal and dynamic techniques of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The heats of reaction (at different curing temperatures) and a kinetic expression of the crosslinking reaction are presented and compared to the results of the previous studies. The proposed kinetic model can be utilized to obtain the rates of heat generation and the extent of cure at different cure temperatures and time. The overall activation energy of the curing reaction was calculated on the basis of experimental data as 17.0 kcal/mole and the overall reaction rate constant as 2.60 × 109 exp (−17,000/RT) min−1.