Effect of diluent on the curing characterization of electron beam cured epoxy resins

The electron beam (EB) curing characterizations of bisphenol A epoxy resins and phenolic aldehyde epoxy resins with different diluents were investigated. The effects of the kind and content of diluents on the gel mass fraction, curing uniformity, cure dimension, glass transition temperature (T_g) and dynamic modulus for different samples were analyzed. It can be found that the use of diluents in the epoxy resin systems will reduce the gel mass fraction, T_g and storage modulus of EB cured epoxy resins, while it will improve the curing uniformity. The cured thickness of the epoxy resin with diluent is smaller than that of the resin without diluent, while the cure diameter of epoxy resin with diluent is larger. With the increasing diluent content, the gel mass fraction decreases gradually, the cure thickness increases, and the cure diameter increases at first and then decreases.