Kinetics Study of Polypropylene Pyrolysis by Non-Isothermal Thermogravimetric Analysis

Abstract

Polypropylene (PP) is considered as one of six polymers representative of plastic wastes. This paper attempts to obtain information on PP polymer pyrolysis kinetics with the help of thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). TGA is used to measure the weight of the sample with temperature increases at different heating rates—5, 10, 20, 30, and 40 K min−1—in inert nitrogen. The pyrolytic kinetics have been analyzed by four model-free methods—Friedman (FR), Flynn–Wall–Qzawa (FWO), Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose (KAS) and Starnik (STK)—and by two model-fitting methods—Coats–Redfern (CR) and Criado methods. The values of activation energies of PP polymer pyrolysis at different conversions are in good agreement with the average of (141, 112, 106, 108 kJ mol−1) for FR, FWO, KAS and STK, respectively. Criado methods have been implemented with the CR method to obtain the reaction mechanism model. As per Criado’s method, the most controlling reaction mechanism has been identified as the geometrical contraction models—cylinder model.

Keywords

• pyrolysis
• polypropylene polymer
• activation energy
• thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA)
• kinetics