Estabilidade térmica de polímeros hidrossolúveis

Abstract

The study of thermal degradation of polymers is essential to determine the stability of the structure and depends on the physical state where the polymer is. A comparative study of the thermal stability of kappa carrageenan (KC), partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) and carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) was performed in an attempt to establish a correlation between the chemical structures, stability of these polymers and their activation energies in the solid state and solution. The thermal stability of the polymers in the solid state was evaluated by thermogravimetric analysis/derivative termogravimetric and the activation energy was calculated using the integral method Broido. As for the three solution polymers, viscosity measurements were made as a function of time at the temperatures 40, 60, 80 and 100 °C, and also 120°C only for HPAM, and constructed an exponential decay model of the specific viscosity for determining the activation energy. We observed a similar stability of polymers in the solid state and in solution, with higher activation energies in the solid state due to the more efficient heat transport in solution. The results are consistent with the structural particularities of each polymer, being HPAM the polymer with greater stability and activation energy of 467.9 kJ mol-1 in the solid state and 79.4 kJ mol-1 in solution. Among the natural polymers structural rigidity played an important role, where the CMC with 293.35 activation energy values and 55.1 kJ mol-1 in the solid state and in solution, respectively, was more stable than KC with values of 245,0 kJ mol-1 in the solid state and 35.8 kJ mol-1 in solution. And, by the relationship between the activation energies in the solid state and in solution has been proposed the possibility of using a mathematical model for other useful polymers in solution behavior prediction from the analysis in the solid state.