TY - JOUR A1 - Martins, M. S. S. A1 - Schartel, Bernhard A1 - Magalhães, F. D. A1 - Pereira, C. M. C. T1 - The effect of traditional flame retardants, nanoclays and carbon nanotubes in the fire performance of epoxy resin composites JF - Fire and Materials N2 - The effectiveness of distinct fillers, from micro to nano-size scaled, on the fire behaviour of an epoxy resin and its carbon fibre reinforced composites was assessed by cone calorimetry. The performance was compared not only regarding the reaction to fire performance, but also in terms of thermal stability, glass transition temperature and microstructure. Regarding the fire reaction behaviour of nanofilled epoxy resin, anionic nanoclays and thermally oxidized carbon nanotubes showed the best results, in agreement with more compact chars formed on the surface of the burning polymer. For carbon fibre reinforced composite plates, the cone calorimeter results of modified resin samples did not show significant improvements on the heat release rate curves. Poorly dispersed fillers in the resin additionally caused reductions on the glass transition temperature of the composite materials. KW - Epoxy resin KW - Carbon fibre reinforced composite KW - Nanoclays KW - Carbon nanotubes KW - Flame retardants PY - 2017 DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/fam.2370 SN - 1099-1018 SN - 0308-0501 VL - 41 IS - 2 SP - 111 EP - 130 PB - Wiley & Sons, Ltd. AN - OPUS4-39085 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Erdmann, Maren A1 - Trappe, Volker A1 - Sturm, Heinz A1 - Braun, Ulrike A1 - Dümichen, Erik T1 - Cure conversion of structural epoxies by cure state analysis and in situ cure kinetics using nondestructive NIR spectroscopy JF - Thermochimica Acta N2 - Non-isothermal heating rate kinetics was applied to two epoxy resin systems. In situ near-infrared (NIR) measurements were taken with a heatable NIR cell which allowed the cure to be monitored by characteristic absorption bands. An autocatalyzed reaction of the nth order was shown to describe the epoxy conversion curves. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) was used as a complementary method. The kinetic models developed by both NIR and DSC are in good accordance with experimental epoxy conversion in the in situ NIR setup for single and multiple cure temperature ramps. A linear calibration curve of the characteristic absorption bands of epoxy normalized to aromatic vibrations was introduced. The curing degree of structural epoxies that were cured according to an industrial temperature cure profile was determined by NIR using the calibration curve. The epoxy conversions of the structural components showed good agreement with the experimental in situ NIR. Several degrees of cure for structural specimens were evaluated by NIR and residual reaction enthalpy by DSC. We present the non-destructive NIR spectroscopy as an alternative to determine fast and non-destructive epoxy conversion, particularly suitable for high degrees of cure on structural components. KW - Epoxy resin KW - Curing kinetics KW - In situ near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy KW - Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) PY - 2017 UR - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040603117300205 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tca.2017.01.010 SN - 0040-6031 SN - 1872-762X VL - 650 SP - 8 EP - 17 PB - Elsevier B.V. AN - OPUS4-39123 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -