Macromolecules, Vol.31, No.9, 2872-2882, 1998
Dynamics of reactive polymer networks in the presence of a nonpolar solvent by dielectric relaxation spectroscopy
An investigation was carried out on the dynamics of polymer networks in the presence of a nonpolar solvent. The formulations studied were composed of a network-forming multifunctional epoxy-amine mixture and o-terphenyl as solvent. A number of formulations at various degrees of cross-linking and with different solvent concentration were prepared and investigated. Experimental results were generated by simultaneous broad-band dielectric relaxation spectroscopy and remote fiber-optic Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The emergence of specific interactions during the network formation was confirmed by FTIR and their effect on the dynamics of the ct process was established. Dielectric data were analyzed in the time and frequency domain, and it was found that the network dynamics could be classified into three regimes as a function of degree of cure. The nature of relaxations in these three regimes was discussed. An interesting finding was that the dynamics were dominated by the short-range interactions in the vicinity of the gel point. The presence of solvent had a pronounced effect on the various aspects of dynamics, including the apparent activation energy for the a process, the distribution function, and the cooperative nature of relaxations.