Isothermal Thermogravimetric Analysis to Study Oxidation Kinetics of Polypropylene

摘要

The oxidation kinetics of unstabilized polypropylene (PP) was analyzed by isothermal thermalgravimetric analysis (iTGA). Oxygen incorporation led to an initial weight gain before a dramatic decrease in weight as confirmed by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). The weight loss was attributed to the release of low molecular weight oxidation products. The time until the onset of weight gain as a function of temperature was used to determine the activation energy for the oxidation reaction. For PP the activation energy was determined to be 155kJ/mole. Literature values differ from this number from -28% to 55%.