The effect of functionalized hydroxyapatite on the thermal degradation behaviour and flammability of polyoxymethylene copolymer

Abstract

In this work, the effect of functionalized hydroxyapatite (HAp-g-PEG) on the thermal degradation behaviour and flammability of polyoxymethylene copolymer (POM_C) was investigated. Organic–inorganic hybrid additive, obtained by grafting of poly(ethylene glycol) on HAp surface using 1,6-hexamethylene diisocyanate as a linker, has been incorporated into POM matrix through an extrusion process. TG analyses show that the incorporation of HAp-g-PEG into POM_C leads to the significant improvement in the thermal stability of the polymer matrix. This is an important finding as POM, being an engineering polymer, suffers from a relatively low thermal stability that limits processing options to develop advanced composite materials. Based on TG results kinetic parameters of the thermal degradation process using Friedman isoconversional method and nonlinear regression method have been calculated; an increase in activation energy of POM degradation process after incorporation of HAp-g-PEG has been found. Thermoanalytical analyses (TG-FTIR/MS) show that incorporation of HAp-g-PEG has no significant effect on the composition of the thermal degradation products. Flammability investigations showed small effect of HAp-g-PEG 600 on the burning time and rate, however, there was a significant reduction in the amount of dripping during the material’s burning process.