• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.359-366
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• 2001

Isothermal physical aging of a glass fiber/epoxy composite was examined at different aging temperatures ($T_a$) and degrees of conversion (monitored by the glass transition temperature, $T_g$) by means of the TBA torsion pendulum technique. The range of aging temperature was from 10 to $130^{\circ}C$ : the conversion was systematically changed from $T_g$=$76^{\circ}C$ to $T_g$=$177^{\circ}C$ (fully crosslinked). The effect of isothermal physical aging was manifested as perturbations of the modulus and mechanical loss vs. temperature in the vicinity of $T_a$ for all conversions. The rate of isothermal physical aging determined from the change of modulus with aging time at fixed aging temperature decreased and then increased with increasing conversion below T$_{a}$=9$0^{\circ}C$. There exists a superposition in aging rate vs. ($T_g$ -$T_a$) by shifting horizontally and vertically. This implies that the physical aging process is independent of the change of chemical structure as conversion proceeds. It has been found that water absorbed at the aging temperature below $70^{\circ}C$ during isothermal physical aging lowers the apparent aging rate. It is due to the absorbed water molecules forming strong polar interactions with hydroxyl group on network chain and reducing the segmental mobility during the physical aging.g.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.507-512
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• 2012

Thin (~650 nm) and ultrathin (~50 nm) films of neat PMMA and PMMA containing 5 wt% of methacryl-polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane were prepared in this work. The effects of film thickness and POSS on glass transition temperature ($T_g$) and isothermal physical aging were investigated by means of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). $T_g$ depression was observed as film thickness was decreased and Ma-POSS molecules were incorporated. Enthalpy relaxation (${\Delta}H_{Relax}$) due to the isothermal physical aging was reduced by ultra-thin film thickness and the addition of Ma-POSS. KWW (Kohlrausch-Williams-Watts) equation was used to fit ${\Delta}H_{Relax}$ vs. aging time data providing the fitting parameters; maximum enthalpy recovery (${\Delta}H_{\infty}$), relaxation time (${\tau}$) and non-exponentiality parameter (${\beta}$).

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.335-342
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• 2007

The goal of this study is to investigate the effect of molecular structure modifications on the kinetics of physical aging of thin films formed from 6FDA-based polyimides with time. The permeability for 6FDA-based polyimide thin films containing carboxyl acid groups commonly decreased 20-50% after the isothermal aging and the selectivity gained anywhere from 10% to 30% while the rate of permeability loss on the change of polymer structure showed different reciprocal relationship between 6FDA-6FpDA based polyimides and 6FDA-DAM based polyimides. The Lorenz-Lorentz equation was used to relate changes in refractive index to densification and volume relaxation with aging time. The permeability as a function of aging time fits the expected form $P=Ae^{(-B/f)}$. The results matched well with the data for different polymer membranes.