Cure and mechanical behaviors of cycloaliphatic/DGEBA epoxy blend system using electron-beam technique

4-Vinyl-1-cyclohexene diepoxide (VCE)/diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A (DGEBA) epoxy blends with benzylquinoxalinium hexafluoroanti-monate were cured using an electron-beam technique. The effect of DGEBA content to VCE on cure behavior, thermal stabilities, and mechanical properties was investigated. The composition of VCE/DGEBA blend system varied within 100:0, 80:20, 60:40, 40:60, 20:80, and 0:100 wt%. The cure behavior and thermal stability of the cured specimens was monited by near-infrared spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis, respectively. Also, the critical stress intensity factor (K _IC) test of the cured specimens was performed to study the mechanical interfacial properties. As a result, the decreases of short side-chain structure and chain scission were observed in NIR measurements as the DGEBA content increases, resulting in varying the hydroxyl and carbonyl groups. And, the initial decomposition temperature (IDT), temperature of maximum weight loss (T_max), and decomposition activation energy (E_d) as thermal stability factors were increased with increasing the DGEBA content. These results could be explained by mean of decreasing viscosity, stable aromatic ring structure, and grafted interpenetrating polymer network with increasing of DGEBA content. Also, the maximum K_IC value showed at mixing ratio of 40:60 wt% in this blend system.