Thermal behaviour of graft copolymers of sodium alginate

Abstract

Abstract The thermal stability of sodium alginate (SA) and its graft copolymers of acrylonitrile (AN), methyl acrylate (MA), ethyl acrylate (EA) and methyl methacrylate (MMA) has been examined in air atmosphere by means of thermogravimetric analysis. The following order of decreasing stability was found from characteristic decomposition temperatures: SA‐g‐PAN > SA‐g‐PMA > SA‐g‐PEA > SA‐g‐PMMA. The overall thermal stability of the different SA graft copolymers was evaluated by comparing their activation energies of thermal degradation; it agreed with the same order of thermal stability.