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Conflict of Interest: In relation to this article, we declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Publication history: Received February 15, 2006
Accepted May 4, 2006

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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A kinetic analysis of the thermal-oxidative decomposition of expandable polystyrene

Hyun-Chul Jun Sea Cheon Oh¹ Hae Pyeong Lee² Hee Taik Kim^†

Department of Chemical Engineering, Hanyang University, 1271, Sa-dong, Ansan, Kyunggi-do 426-791, Korea ¹Department of Environmental Engineering, Kongju National University, 275, Budae-dong, Cheonan, Chungnam 330-717, Korea ²School of Fire and Disaster Prevention Engineering, Kangwon National University, 253, Gyo-dong, Samcheok, Gangwon-do 245-711, Korea

Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering, September 2006, 23(5), 761-766(6), 10.1007/BF02705924

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Abstract

The kinetics of the thermal-oxidative decomposition of expandable polystyrene (EPS) was studied by a conventional thermogravimetric technique in various concentrations of oxygen from 0 to 21%. A kinetic model that accounts for the effects of oxygen concentration was proposed to describe the thermal-oxidative decomposition of EPS. The thermogravimetric analysis curve and its derivative have been analyzed by using differential and integral methods with modification of the Friedman and Coats-Redfern methods. The activation energy, the pre-exponential factor, and the reaction order for unreacted material and oxygen concentration have been determined. When oxygen was present, the activation energy was reduced significantly.

Keywords

Kinetic Analysis Thermal-Oxidative Decomposition Expandable Polystyrene

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