Cure mechanism and kinetic prediction of biobased glass/polyfurfuryl alcohol prepreg by model-free kinetics

•Glass PFA prepreg's cure cycle time was reduced to less than half for isothermal conditions.•Proposed optimised cycle increases the Tg and storage modulus of Glass-PFA prepreg.•Friedman model better predicted dynamic cure behaviour of glass PFA prepreg.•Cure mechanism was found to be different for Glass-PFA prepreg compared to neat resin. This paper explains the cure reaction mechanisms of a novel bio-based glass/Polyfurfuryl prepreg using an experimental and numerical approach. It suggests optimized parameters of rapid curing for isothermal curing conditions. Dynamic scanning calorimetry (DSC) under non-isothermal conditions was used to determine parameters for the two model-free kinetic methods Friedman and Ozawa Flynn Wall. The average activation energy (88.9 ± 4.9 kJ/mol) was found to be higher than that reported for neat resin in literature. The validated models were used to gain insight into reaction mechanisms and were used to predict the evolution of reaction time under isothermal conditions for the PFA prepreg. This suggested that the curing time can be reduced to half by rapidly heating and maintaining isothermal conditions at 160°C, which provides faster curing using hot-press. In addition, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) was carried out to compare the manufacturer recommended cure cycle with the rapid cycle suggested.