Structural and adhesion properties of poly(ethyl 2-cyanoacrylate) post-cured at different temperatures and times

Abstract

The structure and properties of poly(ethyl 2-cyanoacrylate)s (pECNs) cured at 25 °C during 24 hours, and post-cured at different temperatures (45-90 °C) and times (2-6 hours) were studied. Irrespective of the post-cure conditions, pECN was not fully polymerized and two different structures of different molecular weights and topographies were obtained. The post-cure decreased the shear strength values in joints made with aluminum and ethyl cyanoacrylate due to the decrease in the percentage of higher molecular weight polymeric chains and the formation of new short polymeric chains by unzipping de-polymerization mechanism, both contributed to decrease the mechanical properties. On the other hand, the post-cure changed the morphology of pECN because of nano-spheres were produced by curing at 25 °C which were not present after post-cure at 90 °C.

Keywords:

• Poly(ethylcyanoacrylate)
• thermal post-cure
• adhesion
• unzipping mechanism
• DSC
• TGA

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. E. Lorenzo from the Research Technical Services of Alicante University for carrying out the ¹H NMR experiments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Alicante [VIGROB-001, VIGROB-173] and the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad [CTQ2015-66624-P].