A comparative DSC method for physical aging measurement of polymers

Abstract A method of comparative DSC is proposed for the study of physical aging. The essentials of the comparative DSC technique consists of comparing the enthalpy relaxation behaviour of an aged sample with a quenched sample as reference. The accuracy of comparison is improved because of simultaneous measurement of the sample and reference which makes the noise of the apparatus subtractive. This technique has been applied to study the influence of crosslinking on the kinetics of enthalpy relaxation of epoxy resins.