A review study of the effect of carbon nanofibers on the curing kinetics of epoxy resins

Epoxy resins are one of the most important thermosetting polymers that applied in the industries of coatings, buildings, and high performance composite materials due to their physical , mechanical properties and good chemical resistance. Curing kinetics equations are used to optimized epoxy resins and epoxy nanocomposites and also, studying the kinetics of curing can increased the quality of the final product. Changes in the glass transition temperature can affected the conversion of the epoxy resin, and the presence of carbon nanofibers in the matrix helps to improved the crosslinking process. Adsorption of curing agent molecules into carbon nanofibers reduced the concentration of carbon nanofibers and also, surface modification of nanofibers reduced the activation energy and improved the curing rate. In this research, the effect of adding carbon nanofibers and modified carbon nanofibers on morphology and mechanical , rheological properties, activation energy, reaction rate, degree of curing, heat flow, and curing kinetics modeling has been investigated.