Thermal cure of phenylethynyl‐terminated AFR‐PEPA‐4 imide oligomer and a model compound

The thermal cure reactions of phenylethynyl terminated AFR‐PEPA‐4 oligomer and a model compound N‐phenyl‐[4‐(phenylethynyl) phthalimide] were investigated. The kinetics analysis of the thermal cure of AFR‐PEPA‐4 was determined using DSC, with modified DiBenedetto equation. The activation energy of thermal cure reaction of AFR‐PEPA‐4 oligomer is 34.1 kcal/mol with the kinetic order of one, when the reaction conversion is less than 80%. The activation energy of thermal reaction of N‐phenyl‐[4‐(phenylethynyl) phthalimide] is 41.5 kcal/mol with the kinetic order of 0.95. The cure reaction of AFR‐PEPA‐4 imide oligomer can be described as a fast first‐order reaction stage for the formation of polyenes followed by a slow diffusion‐controlled crosslinking reaction stage.