Kinetic studies on the thermal decomposition of gamma-irradiated poly(vinyl alcohol (PVA)/methyl cellulose (MC) blends

Senna, Magdy M.; Helal, Reham H.; Mostafa, Tahia A.; El-Naggar, Abdel Wahab M.

doi:10.21608/jsrs.2015.18811

Kinetic studies on the thermal decomposition of gamma-irradiated poly(vinyl alcohol (PVA)/methyl cellulose (MC) blends

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Radiation Chemistry Department, National Center for Radiation Research and Technology, B.O. Box 29 Nasr City, Atomic Energy Authority, Cairo Egypt

² Chemistry Department, College for Girls, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

10.21608/jsrs.2015.18811

Abstract

Poly(vinyl alcohol)/ methyl cellulose (PVA/MC) blends, at different ratios were prepared into films by solution casting using, water as a common solvent, and gamma irradiated at various doses. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were used to study the thermal properties of gamma irradiated PVA/MC blends. It is expected that these methods would enable to understand the effect of gamma irradiation on the mechanism of thermal decomposition. The kinetic parameters such as energy of activation (E_a) and regression r² for the thermal decomposition were determined by three different methods. In the present work, the Coats-Redfern, Broido and Horowitz-Metzger methods were applied. The results indicated that the E_a and r² values of the gamma irradiated PVA/MC blends as determined by the three methods were comparable.

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