Curing Behavior for Microencapsulated Curing Agents on Epoxy Resin Systems
Microcapsules containing a curing agent, 2-phenyl imidazole (2PZ), for a diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) epoxy resin were prepared by a solid-in-oil-inwater emulsion solvent evaporation technique with poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) as a polymeric wall. The former could take more than 3 months at room temperature, whereas the latter was cured after only a week. The values of the reaction order (a curing kinetic parameter) for DGEBA/2PZ and DGEBA/2PZ–PMMA microcapsules were quite close, and this showed that the curing reactions of the two samples proceeded conformably. The curing mechanism was investigated, and a two-step initiation mechanism was considered: the first was assigned to adduct formation, whereas the second was due to alkoxide-initiated polymerization.