Abstract
When a dielectric material is irradiated with microwave, its dipoles are vibrated by the action of the alternating electric field induced by microwave, and heat is then produced within the dielectric material. Therefore, we expected that microwave reaction of thermosetting resins would proceed faster even at lower temperature. In this paper, we report the factors of accelerating microwave reaction, the comparison of reactivity between microwave reaction and thermal reaction in the oven, and the application of microwave reaction. The introduction of higher relative permittivity (εr) and dielectric loss (tanδ) in a material resulted in higher conversion of microwave curing. Microwave reaction proceeded more than 4 times as fast as thermal reaction in the oven, which enabled the decrease in the reaction temperature by more than 30 degrees. Moreover microwave reaction decreased the warpage of test specimens by thermal history.
