A comprehensive assessment on degradation of multi-walled carbon nanotube-reinforced EMA nanocomposites

Thermal degradation kinetics of MWNT-reinforced EMA-based nanocomposites having different methyl acrylate (MA) contents (by % mass) ranging from 9 to 30% have been monitored. Kissinger and Flynn-Wall-Ozawa methods for evaluating non-isothermal degradation of polymers have been examined. Overall, the thermal stabilities of the nanocomposites are the function of amount of MWNTs loading and their state of dispersion that depends on the MA content of respective EMAs. Composite samples exhibit higher activation energy (E (a)) than the neat EMAs but the E (a)s of the composites diminish with increased MA contents of the matrices. TG-Mass spectrometry has been used to identify the volatile products resulting from thermal degradation of composites, and a promising mechanism has been proposed over different range of temperatures of degradation. It is proposed that the side-group scission of methoxycarbonyl group initiates thermal decomposition following combination of chain end and random chain scission reactions, ensuing pseudo second-order kinetics.