Polymer Bulletin, Vol.53, No.5-6, 367-375, 2005
Calorimetric and rheological studies of 12-hydroxystearic acid/digycidyl ether of bisphenol A blends
Above a concentration c* close to 0.3 wt%, blends of 12-hydroxystearic acid (HSA) with diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A ( DGEBA) prepolymer mixed at 80 degreesC give thermally reversible physical gels (organogels) on cooling. According with the literature, the turbidity of the gels indicates fibres of rectangular cross-sectional shapes. The slope of the linear melting heats versus concentration is equal to the melting heat of the pure HSA (- 182 +/- 4 J. g(-1)). The blends are gels as the elastic modulus G' is about ten times larger than the loss one G" and G' is practically independent of the frequency at a given concentration. The sharp variation of the temperature of the endothermic peak T-peak, of the time to reach the rubbery plateau t(r), of the exponent Delta (G' proportional to omega(Delta)) and of the limiting strain. l of the linear viscoelastic domain below 2.5 wt%, is attributed to smaller crystallites in the blend. At a given frequency, G' follows a scaling law with the concentration (G' proportional to c(beta1)), the scaling exponent beta(1) being equal to 3.87 +/- 0.02 at 1 rad. s(-1). This indicates that the gel structure is independent of the concentration.