Evaluation of FT-IR spectroscopic changes in epoxy resin when irradiated with electron beam

The evaluation of IR spectrometric curves of epoxy system with different formulation is the aim of this work. The epoxy system is constituted by epoxy resin with addition of a cationic initiator. The samples were irradiated in a Job 188 Dynamitron accelerator, with 0.5 to 1.5 MeV beam energy and 1.75 to 24.02 kGy/s dose rate. A comparative study involving different FT-IR techniques had been presented in this work and small structural changes had been observed when irradiated and non irradiated samples were compared. The analysis of the results suggested formation of C=O and C-O groups, similar to what is found in esters, and the disappearance of the 915 cm-1 bands in the irradiated samples which is typical of a polymerization process. With the utilization of different FT-IR analysis techniques, it was concluded that for some samples, the electron beam treatment affected not only the surface but the interior of this samples as well. (author)