Kinetics study of thermal oxidative degradation of ABS containing flame retardant components

The thermal oxidative degradation kinetics of pure acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene (ABS) and the flame-retarded ABS materials with intumescent flame retardant (IFR) were investigated using Kissinger, Flynn–Wall–Ozawa, and Horowitz–Metzger methods. The results showed that the degradation of all samples included two stages, the activation energy at the first stage decreased by the incorporation of these flame retardant components, while increased at the second stage. The activation energy order of the flame-retarded ABS samples at stage 2 illustrates the relationship between the composition of IFRs and their flame retardancy, FR materials with appropriate acid agent/char former ratio has higher activation energy and better flame retardancy.