Kinetics of curing reaction of urethane function on base-catalyzed epoxy reaction

The kinetic study on the effect of aromatic-connected carbamate (Ar-carbamate) on the curing reaction of phenyl glycidyl ether (PGE) catalyzed by tertiary amine was carried out through thermal analysis of the reaction by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). By isothermal DSC analysis, the consumption rate of the epoxide group of PGE was found to be a first-order reaction in the presence of aromatic-connected carbamate in the reaction. It was found that the reaction system has a low activation energy (E-a = 4.63 kcal/mol) as compared to the system without Ar-carbamate (E-a = 6.89 kcal/mol). A reaction mechanism was proposed for this reaction system. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.