Curing behavior and thermal performance of cyanate ester resin modified by Poly(methyl-benzene diethynylbenzene)Siliane

Thermosetting polymer blends composed of poly(methyl-benzene diethynylbenzene)Siliane (PSA) and cyanate ester resin (CE) were prepared via co-curing. The curing behavior and structure of the CE/PSA blends were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, respectively. The reaction kinetic parameters were determined using Kissinger, Flynn–Wall–Ozawa and Crane methods. The thermal properties of obtained polymers were evaluated with dynamic mechanical thermal analysis and thermogravimetric analysis. The results implied that there was no reaction occurring in the blends’ preparation but a co-reaction between PSA and CE during the curing. The values of the activation energy (E _a) for all the CE/PSA blends are higher than the values for CE. The thermal stability of modified resin was increased with raising PSA content, especially for CE-5 blend system, excellent thermal stability was observed and temperature at 5 wt% loss (T _d5) in nitrogen was 540 °C.