A new dynamic model of thermal degradation of polymer binary mixes submitted through pyrolysis

Abstract

Introduction: This article is the product of the review “A new dynamic model of thermal degradation of polymer binary mixes submitted through pyrolysis”, developed in the University Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia – UPTC-, carried out during 2020. This paper shows the validation process of a dynamic model proposed torepresent the one-step thermal degradation reaction of individual components in polymer mixtures.Problem: It is complicated to model the process of thermal degradation of polymer mixtures inside pyrolysis reactors. Inside the MPW reactor, the distribution of polymeric components in the mixture is shuffled. Objective: The objective is to validate a proposed dynamic model to represent the thermal degradation of binary polymer mixtures from the thermograms of each individual component.Methodology: A comparison is made between real data provided by TGA of binary mixes of plastic and the result of simulated thermal degradation obtained using a differential equation of the model for thermal degradation of the same plastics. Results: The simulation results showed a reasonable degree of approximation with a mean square error of less than 5%.Conclusion: The results of the simulation provide a good approximation of the loss of mass of the real samples submitted to TGA tests in the entire temperature range of the process. Consequently, it is not necessary to segment the process into sub-ranges to look for parameters in each of them.Originality: The differential equation proposed as a dynamic model for the thermal degradation of a single polymer is extended to also represent the degradation of a mixture composed of two types of plastic for the first time in this paper.Limitations: The number of samples allowed for thermogravimetric analysis was limited to five due to the institutional regulations of the UPTC for research projects attached to doctoral theses.Keywords: polymer thermal degradation, thermogravimetric analysis, dynamic model, polymer pyrolysis simulation