STUDY OF THE THERMAL BEHAVIOR OF Pittosporum undulatum

摘要

Sweet pittosporum (Pittosporum undulatum) is native to eastern parts of Australia. It is a tree growing to 15m tall with wavy (undulating) leaf edges and also has attractive fragrant flowers, sweet pittosporum. This tree has been introduced widely as an ornamental plant to North America, southern Brazil and also in Africa [1]. It is known as an invader of many tropical and subtropical mountain forests and in warm temperate regions of both hemispheres and many islands. The fruits have diameter among 1 and 1.5 cm and are orange capsules when ripe, sticky and possess a strong odour [2].In this work, we report on the extraction of the Pittosporum undulatum oil was carried out and characterization by gas chromatography. The composition of in nature of this oil indicates that there is a predominance of unsaturated fatty acids.TG/DTG curves of Pittosporum undulatum oil, with sample mass of 5mg, aluminum crucible, heating rate of 20℃ min~(-1) was obtained and the TG profile of this oil under nitrogen gas purge show that the first loss occur around 236℃ with one only mass loss, with loss of 99.60%. To analysis under oxygen gas purge, from DTG curve, the thermal decomposition occurs in five stages, between 220 and 550℃. The mass losses of the stages of thermal decomposition are: 25.55% (220 -312℃); 24.71% (312 -356℃); 14.52% (356 -398℃); 18.71% (398 -460℃) and 15.16% (460 - 550℃). As conclusion, it was possible, from TG and DTG curves establish the behavior under several atmospheres of the thermal decomposition of this oil.