A kinetic analysis of thermal decomposition of polyaniline and its composites with rare earth oxides

The decomposition kinetics of the pure polyaniline (PANI), PANI/CeO2 composites, and PANI/Dy2O3 composites were investigated using thermogravimetry (TG) technique under air atmosphere. Two isoconversional methods and multiple linear regression method were used for the evaluation of kinetic parameters from the TG data of different heating rates. The estimation of activation energy values shows that the addition of CeO2 significantly enhances the thermal stability of PANI matrix, while the presence of Dy2O3 slightly reduces the thermal stability of the final composites. The kinetic analysis results show that the kinetic model for the decomposition process for PANI is D-3 and for the two kinds of composites is F-1-D-1.