The novel modeling approach for studying the thermal degradation of PMMA/nanooxide systems

Abstract

PMMA (poly(methyl methacrylate)) nanocomposites differing in their nature, size, and surface area were prepared containing one volume percent of silica, alumina or titania. These samples and pure PMMA were prepared in order to analyze how the presence of nanooxides affects the thermal stability and degrada-tion kinetics of the materials. A detailed study of thermal degradation and thermal changes was performed by Simultaneous Thermogravimetry and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (SDT). The proposed mathemat-ical model, including all three heating rates in one minimizing function, well fitted all TGA data obtained with a very high coefficient of correlation. This enabled an assessment of four decomposition steps of the PMMA samples and a calculation of their activation energies and individual contributions to total mass loss. The addition of the largest nanoparticles (titania) caused the highest activation energy for each DTG stage of the PMMA/nanooxide systems. The enhancement of head-to-head H-H bonding strength was achieved by addition of alumina and titania. The influence of the size and nature of nanoparticles on the glass transition temperature of prepared PMMA systems was also determined.