Thermal Degradation of Poly(Trimethylene Terephthalate) and Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene Blends: Kinetic Analysis of Thermogravimetric Data

Abstract

Abstract The thermal degradation of virgin poly(trimethylene terephthalate) (PTT), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), and three different novel blends PTT20/ABS80, PTT50/ABS50 and PTT80/ABS20, wt/wt%, was studied using a non isothermal thermogravimetric technique. Kinetic parameters such as activation energies, reaction orders, and pre-exponential factors are calculated using integral and differential methods reported in the literature. Advantages and disadvantages of these methods are discussed in order to characterize PTT, ABS and their blends. Keywords: acrylonitrile butadiene styrenedegradation behaviorpolymer blendspoly(trimethylene terephthalate) The authors are grateful to the Research Administration of Kuwait University for granting funds from the project EC03/05 for carrying out this work. We are also grateful to Johnson Mathew and Senait Asmerom for their technical help.