Study of curing kinetics of 4‐ (dimethylsilyl) butyl ferrocene grafted HTPB and effect of catalysts by differential scanning calorimetry

Abstract The cure kinetics of 4‐ (dimethylsilyl) butyl ferrocene grafted hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) with Isophorone diisocyante (IPDI) was investigated using differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). Furthermore, the catalytic effect of Iron (III) acetylacetonate (Fe(AA) 3 ) and Dibutyltin dilaurate (DBTDL) on the curing reaction was studied. The experimental data was fitted to Kissinger and Ozawa models, and the kinetic parameters were expressed as Arrhenius activation energy (E), pre‐exponential factor (A) and rate constants. The Crane model was explored to determine the reaction order of the curing reaction. The study categorically showed that the activation energy of the curing reaction with 4‐ (dimethylsilyl) butyl ferrocene grafted HTPB is higher as compared to the pure hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) based system. However, the rate of curing reaction is higher with 4‐ (dimethylsilyl) butyl ferrocene grafted HTPB as compared to HTPB, and the viscosity build‐up data is too aligned with the DSC kinetic study. In addition, both catalysts increased the rate of the curing reaction but Fe(AA) 3 displayed a superior catalytic effect.