Thermal degradation of lyocell/poly-N-isopropylacrylamide graft copolymers gels

In the present work Lyocell fibers were subjected to graft copolymerization of poly-N-isopropylacrylamide (pNIPAAm) thermosensitive polymer. The thermal degradation and stability of lyocell/pNIPAAm copolymers gels were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TG). pNIPAAm/lyocell copolymers are thermally stable and more resistant to temperature than lyocell fibres. Thermal characterization was analyzed as a function of percentage by mass of the pNIPAAm grafted. It has been shown that for pNIPAAm/lyocell copolymers, degradation occurs at higher temperature when increasing the degree of grafting.