An Investigation on the Thermal Degradation Kinetics of Wood-Polymer Composites Used in Interior Automobile Panels via Non-Isothermal Thermogravimetry

Abstract

Wood plastic composites (WPCs) offer a promising alternative for various automotive components, combining the benefits of wood and polymers such as lightness, strength, and sustainability. However, determining decomposition kinetics is challenging due to the intricate composition of WPCs. Therefore, this research work focused to analyze the relationship between the thermal degradation of WPCs, the degradation atmosphere, and the kinetics. The kinetic parameters were evaluated by Coats and Redfern method based on a set of TGA experiments under variable atmospheres (inert and oxidative) using 10 °C/min heating rate. Thermograms demonstrated significant differences in the thermal properties of WPC when subjected to oxidative and inert atmospheres, despite two conditions having the same number of thermal degradation zones. It has been suggested that the process of thermal decomposition of WPC contains three weight loss segments under inert and oxidative atmosphere according to the Gaussian multi-peak fitting function. The Coats-Redfern method showed multi-step chemical kinetics and more accurately characterizes the decomposition behavior of WPC, attributing to its multi-compositional properties. Proposed reaction schemes had regression coefficients higher than 0.9809 to obtain reaction order, activation energy and pre-exponential factor.