epoxy/amine dual-curable system prepregs: changes of viscosity by different cure systems and cure cycles

Viscosity is an important characteristic of prepregs which affects other characteristics and also mechanical properties of the resulting composite, significantly. several parameters determine the viscosity of a prepreg such as cure conditions. it is important to know how viscosity changes by different cure cycles and cure systems as curing is the key in turning a prepreg to a composite. in this work, bulk samples of epoxy resin (epon 828) with different cure systems and cure cycles were prepared to invstigate the effect of cure conditions on viscosity. cure system used is a dual-curable system, including deta as a low-temperature hardener, dicy as a latent hardener and diuron as an accelerator. brookfield viscometer was used to observe the effects.