Nonisothermal cure kinetics in the synthesis of polybenzoxazine-clay nanocomposites

The ability to understand and model the mechanism of cure kinetics accurately is crucial for the production of thermosetting resin‐based nanocomposites. This article reports on work performed to elucidate an accurate model of cure kinetics for the formation of polybenzoxazine–montorillonite nanocomposites through the use of differential scanning calorimetry with nonisothermal methods, including single‐heating and multiple‐heating methods. The results indicated that both the Kissinger and Ozawa methods for calculating the activation energy gave fairly close results of 115 and 120 kJ/mol, respectively. The reaction order was about 1.31, calculated from the single‐heating method based on the autocatalytic method, and a comparison was made of the dynamic curing behaviors in the syntheses of polybenzoxazine and polybenzoxazine–montorillonite nanocomposites. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 88: 194–200, 2003