Due to its properties, epoxy resin is a widely used material. An important field of applications, for instance, is the electronics industry. Since epoxy resin formulations are excellent electrical insulators, they are not only used to protect components from dust or moisture, but also from short circuits. Epoxy coatings are often used to cover metal surfaces in order to prevent them from corrosion or contact to acids. Due to its chemical and mechanical resistance, epoxy coatings are also used for flooring, aerospace or windmill application.
The unmixed two-part epoxies are quite stable and have a reasonably long shelf life. From a chemical point of view, polymerization or cross-linking of a two-part epoxy is a strongly exothermic polyaddition. A typical example is the reaction of bisphenol A with epichlorohydrin.
Since it is a huge difference if the epoxy is used as a thin coating or as a bulk material and with or without fillers, it is in any case advantageous to study the curing reaction in order to optimize the production process. Using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), the curing behavior can be studied with each particular formulation varying the content of all ingredients such as reactive pre-polymer, hardener, additives or fillers. Furthermore, by using the kinetic evaluation of the DSC data obtained, it is possible to calculate processing parameters and to predict the optimized reaction time and temperature.
