Thermal Degradation Kinetics of Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate Copolymer Containing Hydrotalcite and Red Phosphorus

Abstract

The thermal degradation of flame-retarded ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) composites containing hydrotalcite (LDH) and red phosphorus (RP) are studied by thermogravimetric analysis. Four kinetics analysis models, i.e., the Kissinger method, the Flynn-Wall method, the Friedman method, and the Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose (KAS) method, are used to study the thermal degradation kinetics of the EVA/LDH composites. The apparent activation energy (E _a ) data calculated from the four methods are compared. The E _a results indicate that the addition of LDH and RP affects mainly the first thermal degradation stage of EVA.

Keywords:

• EVA
• Hydrotalcite
• Kinetic analysis
• Red phosphorus
• Thermal degradation

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 20776136 and 50273036) and the open fund of Henan Key Laboratory of Preventing and Curing on Coal Mine Gas & Fire of Hennan Polytechnic University (No. HKLGF200701) is greatly acknowledged.