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Regarding new researches on chemorheology of energetic composites,it is determined that HTPB slurry should have convenient viscosity for ease of casting. In the other word, available time for appropriate casting of energetic composite after curative addition called pot-life. Long pot-life of HTPB binder system is necessarily for good processability and non-defect production of energetic composite grains. In addition to long pot-life, the physical-mechanical properties of HTPB energetic composite are of at most important. In this research, effect of  curative type (structure), casting temperature and the amount of DBTDL as a curing catalyst on chemorheological behavior of HTPB binder system and physical-mechanical  properties of energetic composite were investigated. Toluene diisocyanate (TDI), Isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI) and Hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) were selected in order to investigate the role of molecular structure of curing agent on Chemorheology of binder system and its slurry and also on physical-mechanical  properties of energetic composite. Moreover, temperatures of 40, 50 and 60 ˚C, were selected to study the effect of casting temperature on chemorheology. By decreasing each 10˚C of casting temperature, pot-life of binder system (IPDI and TDI) was increased about 10 min. Pot-life of binder system and energetic composite slurry based on IPDI in the presence of 0.005% DBTDL (the optimum content) at similar temperatures, showed the longest pot-life. The elastomer and energetic composite based on IPDI showed the most crosslinking density (CLD) and modulus in comparison to other curing agents with retain of tensile strength and adequate elongation.
 

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Hypothesis: The aim of this research was the investigation on kinetic of curing reaction of polyurethane binder based on hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene (HTPB). This reaction is of particular interest in advanced polyurethane composite materials.
Methods: HTPB diol was dynamically cured using differential scanning calorimetery (DSC) at different heating rates (5, 10, 20 and 40° C/min) with curing agents of Toluene Diisocyanate (TDI) and Isophorone Diisocyanate (IPDI) in presence and absence of Dibutyltin Dilaurate (DBTDL) catalyst. Kinetic parameters were calculated using Kissinger, Ozawa and isoconversion models. Urethane formation and viscosity build-up during cure reaction was studied by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and rotational visocmetery (RV) methods.
Findings: Results showed that activation energy, enthalpy, progress and the rate of reaction were influenced by type of curing agent and the presence of catalyst. Kinetic models showed activation energy was reduced about 1 kJ/mol at each 0.05 unit increase in the degree of cure. The activation energy of HTPB-TDI-DBTDL binder system versus degree of cure was reduced slower in comparison to HTPB-IPDI-DBTDL binder system. Decrease in activation energy at degrees of cure higher than 90% was intensified as probable diffusion of low molecular weight molecules into polymer chains. Enthalpy of reaction in HTPB-TDI-DBTDL binder system at heating rates of higher than 10° C/min was independent of heating rate, whereas in HTPB-IPDI-DBTDL binder system the enthalpy of reaction is highly dependent on heating rate. Chemorheological results showed that rate of curing reaction for binder systems are in the order of HTPB-TDI-DBTDL>HTPB-IPDI-DBTDL>HTPB-TDI.