Thermal characterization of UHMWPE stabilized with natural antioxidants

This work presents a study of the thermal degradation of ultra-high molecular mass polyethylene (UHMWPE) stabilized with natural (alpha-tocopherol and carvacrol) and synthetic antioxidants. Thermogravimetric analysis in dynamic mode was used to determine the apparent activation energies of different samples. The stabilization of UHMWPE with low concentrations (around 0.3%) of alpha-tocopherol is enough to obtain an efficient thermal performance of the polymer. Carvacrol is also a good stabilizer for UHMWPE, but at higher concentration than in the case of alpha-tocopherol. The comparison of apparent activation energy between samples with natural and synthetic antioxidants in similar concentration shows that alpha-tocopherol is a better stabilizer in terms of their thermal performance.