Studies on the properties of glass fiber reinforced epoxy composites of DGEBA / epoxidized polyhydric alcohols with or without fortifier

Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) technique was used to study the curing reaction of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) resin and different di‐ and trifunctional polyhydric alcohols with phthalic anhydride as curing agent and triethylamine as catalyst with or without fortifier. The thermal stability of the cured products was also studied by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Using these data, different glass fiber reinforced epoxy composites were fabricated and their mechanical and electrical properties and their resistance to chemicals were studied as well. Activation energies of curing reactions range within 75.1 to 88.3 kJ mol−1. The cured products have good thermal stability; the composites have good mechanical strength, electrical insulation properties and chemical resistance. 36 to 53% improvement in flexural strength has been observed when fortifier was added to the DGEBA‐diluent systems.