Cure kinetics of ring-opening metathesis polymerization of dicyclopentadiene

Abstract

The cure kinetics of polydicyclopentadiene (pDCPD) prepared by ring-opening metathesis polymerization with three different concentrations of Grubbs' catalyst was examined using differential scanning calirimetry (DSC). The experimental data were used to test several different phenomenological kinetic models. The data are best modeled with a "model-free" isoconversional method. This analysis reveals that the activation energy increases significantly for degree of cure greater than 60%. Catalyst concentration is shown to have a large effect on the cure kinetics.published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe