Influence of Curing Agents on Curing of Anhydride-Epoxy Resin System

Carboxylic acid anhydrides are the most important hightemperature- curing agents used for the conversion of epoxy resins to highly crosslinked, glassy, three-dimensionalnetworks [1]. Especially for electrical applications, anhydride hardners show some outstanding properties, ie low exothermsand shrinkage during curing, as well as low water absorption and almost internal stress-free systems after curing. The reactivity of the epoxy-anhydride reaction is slow;therefore, an accelerator is often used at 0.5 to 3 percent to speed up the gel time and cure. Most often, the accelerator is atertiary amine, and the optimum concentration is dependent on the anhydride, the resin used, and the cure conditions [2]. In this work, the effects of type of some curing agents on cure behaviour of Anhydride-DGEBA system was studied