°C/min.), 1 h at 140°C, 140 -> 190°C 6 h at 190°C, cooling (8 h) in the oven to 20°C; for MCDEA: 3 h at

Drops of diamine or epoxy-diamine mixture were confined between two glass plates and mounted on a hot plate under the optical microscope (Laborlux 12POLS from Leica equipped with a hot plate FP82 from Mettler and a CCD-IRIS color video camera from Sony). Samples were heated from 30°C to 190°C at 10°C/min. A scanning electron microscope (Philips XL20) fitted with an electron microprobe analysis accessory (Edax-Econ4) was also used. Samples were neither coated with gold nor with carbon. The accelerating electron voltage was 5 kV, the electron spot diameter for microanalyses was about 200 nm and the tilt angle used was 15°.