Kinetic Analysis of Thermal Degradation of Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) for its Use in Electrical Appliances

This work investigates the kinetic studies of thermal degradation of Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) terpolymer. A complete thermal degradation profile of commercially available ABS plastic was recorded at multiple heating rates (5, 10, 15, and 20 °C min-1) from ambient temperature to 1000 °C under N2 (100 mL min-1) atmosphere. The maximum degradation (˃ 90%) of ABS polymer was observed from 360-524 °C. The effect of heating rates on the thermal stability of ABS polymer and derivative thermogravimetric (DTG) curves was also examined. Different isoconversional approaches such as Flynn-Wall-Ozawa (FWO) and Kissinger were used for the kinetic considerations of thermal data to calculate frequency factor (A), activation energy (Ea), and order of degradation reactions (n). The activation energy values evaluated by FWO and Kissinger methods were observed to be 107.36 kJ mol-1 and 111.28 kJ mol-1, respectively attributed to the preferred use of ABS polymer in electrical appliances.