Investigation of the effects of scale and cure environment on the properties of vinyl ester polymer

Thomason, James and Xypolias, Georgios (2024) Investigation of the effects of scale and cure environment on the properties of vinyl ester polymer. Polymer, 307. 127344. ISSN 0032-3861 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polymer.2024.127344)

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Abstract

This work involves the study of the cure kinetics of a commercial bisphenol-epoxy vinyl ester resin as a function of sample thickness and environment atmosphere. It has been previously suggested that cured vinyl ester polymer is a diphasic material consisting of a lower Tg styrene phase and a higher Tg vinyl ester phase. The cure kinetics of each phase have been observed to have a significant effect on the thermal properties of the system, such as the degree of crosslinking, glass transition temperature and final conversion. DSC, DMA and FTIR were employed to characterize two vinyl ester resin systems and study the material property transferability from macroscale to microscale. The effect of reduced styrene content on resin curing and polymer thermal behaviour was studied. The effect of oxygen interaction during initial cure was investigated at both microscale and macroscale and found to have a significant effect on final polymer performance.

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