Study of the water diffusion process in homopolymerized epoxy networks

OROFINO, ANTONELA; ARROSIO, FLORENCIA; MONTEMARTINI, PABLO

Mar del Plata

Congreso; XVI Latin-American Polymer Symposium, XIV Iberoamerican Polymer Congress; 2018

Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata

Diffusion of water within the polymer and its kinetics are clearly related to the degradation process. As a result, there is a wealth of experimental absorption studies, diffusion modeling efforts and reports of mechanical property loss as a result of the effect of water. Usually, Fickian treatment is too simple to fully model the complex moisture diffusion in polymers. The deviation from the equilibrium plateau is most often attributed to time-dependent relaxation effects. This association has been made with considerable support. Likewise, the existence of diffusing water molecules in effectively ??bound?? and ??free?? states, as well as a combination of these two effects.1 The objective of this work is to study the long term absorption of water in a homopolymerized epoxy network considering the network relaxation effect.