Effect of Water on Epoxy Resin's Curing Characteristic

Polymerization will take place in the reaction between resin and hardener.Different
conditions and temperature will affect the polymerization reaction. Therefore few
methods can be applied to investigate the curing process of resin especially underwater.
For example, in sub sea environment, resin is used to repair the defect areas of pipes
which are used to transfer gas and petroleum products. Therefore it is very crucial to
make sure that the resins are fully cured to resume full capacity operations.
Conventional method used is Differential Scanning Calorimeter where the percentage of
cure can be calculated but the chemical reaction is not known. Infrared and Raman
analysis are the appropriate methods to observe the chemical reaction of resin. Since
Raman spectroscopy is currently under maintenance, in order to investigate the effect of
water to curing process by using infrared analysis. There are many functional groups
can be detected by the infrared, in this experiment, epoxide and phenylene groups are
essential for the observation. The epoxy resin used is EPOLAM 2050 which is used in
concrete and in casting by addition of fillers. The experimental method is carried out by
considering the properties of this resin which is quite viscous. There are plenty ways to
determine the effect of water on epoxy resin. However, only two ways are implemented
here which are adding the water with resin and another is immerse the resin plate into
water. For effect of temperature, conventional way is applied where the samples are
cured in a oven. To analyse the results chemically and mechanically, quite a number of
equipment can be applied but due to time consumption and availability of equipments,
only Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy is used. From this analysis, it can clearly
show the effect of water and temperature on resin. When both parameters increase,
there curing rate will increase too. So the relation of water and temperature without
exceeding the limit is directly proportional to the curing. Overall, the objectives of the
research are achieved but there are room for improvement and recommendation to
expand it