A kinetic study on the thermal degradation of multi-walled carbon nanotubes-reinforced poly(propylene) composites

The influence of the multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) content on the thermal degradation behavior of MWNTs-reinforced poly(propylene) (PP) composites was investigated by using non-isothermal thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Kinetic parameters of degradation were evaluated by using the Flynn-Wall-Ozawa iso-conversional method and the pseudo first-order method. As a result, compared with pristine PP, MWNTs-PP nanocomposites have lower peak temperatures of degradation, narrower degradation temperature ranges and a higher amount of residual weight at the end of the degradation, which is likely to be a result of specific interactions between complimentary functional groups. The values of the reaction order of MWNTs-PP nanocomposites determined by the Kissinger method are close to 1 in the non-isothermal degradation process. There is a good correlation between the E_a in region II and the peak temperature of degradation for the composites.