Abstract
The modification of epoxy resin curing agents by the incorporation of metal salts offers the opportunity of improving the pot life, controllability of the cure and properties of the cured products. This thesis is concerned with aspects of the preparation and the evaluation of curing agents of this type, in many cases by comparison with their parent imidazole curing agents. Chapter 1 contains a general review of epoxy resin chemistry, the curing agents employed and the methods used for monitoring the curing process. The rationale behind the present studies is also discussed. Chapter 2 is concerned with the various techniques and instrumentation that were used during the course of the research whilst in Chapter 3 details of the preparation and characterisation, storage stability and controllability of the various curing agents are given. In Chapter 4 kinetic and mechanistic details of the curing process are presented whilst in Chapter 5 the influence of thermal history on the mechanism of the network formation and the final properties of the cured resin(s) are discussed. In Chapter 6 the influence of the metal salts on the cured epoxy resins and the reactivity of aromatic diamine complexes is assessed.