Abstract

The curing kinetics of UP nanocomposites prepared by incorporating different amounts of twokinds of organomontmorillonite (organo-MMT): trimethyloctadecacylammonium chloride (TMOA) andaminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) were studied by non-isothermal differential scanning calorimetry(DSC) experiments. small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) was used for measuring the d-spacings in themodified organo-clays, and no intercalation UP into these clays was observed for the nanocomposites.HRTEM images showed dispersed and agglomerated platelets in UP/APTES 2 and 10 wt%. DSC analysisshowed two peaks in UP resins and UP/organoMMT, and a decrease in the exothermal peaks tempera-ture (Tp1and Tp2) for nanocomposites with the heating rate as compared with those of neat UP system;thus, the higher the heating rate, the higher the curing reaction rate. This effect was more clearly onthe UP/MMT-APTES nanocomposites. The effective activation energies (Ea) were determined with themode-free isoconversional Starik’s method. Sesták–Berggren model was chosen to simulate the reactionrate with a good match achieved. Thermal gravimetric analysis showed that the cured UP/APTES at highconcentration were slightly more stable than UP and TMOA