Thermal degradation of poly (ε-caprolactone) nanocomposites with soy lecithin-modified bentonite fillers

Abstract

Thermal degradation of green nanocomposite films prepared from poly (ε-caprolactone) (PCL) and soy lecithin (SL)-modified bentonite (Bent) obtained by melt blending were studied through thermal degradation kinetics and molecular weight determinations by gel permeation chromatography (GPC). Kinetic of degradation processes were analyzed by dynamic thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The apparent activation energies for the thermal degradation have been calculated using the kinetic methods of Friedman, Ozawa-Flynn-Wall, and Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose. Furthermore, a non-linear method was applied. The results showed that most of the used models were able to reproduce the experimental degradation behavior of PCL matrix, PCL/Bent and PCL/SL-Bent nanocomposites. The results from GPC and TGA demonstrated that the molecular weight of PCL was reduced by the presence of Bent-SL because SL acts as catalyzer of degradation reaction.