Potential of thermal analysis as applied to studying the kinetics of thermal degradation of polymers

The kinetics of thermal degradation of low-density polyethylene was studied by TGA and DSC at heating rates from 0.5 to 40 deg min^–1. Causes of significant discrepancies in the published effective kinetic constants of the overall reaction of thermal degradation of the polymers, determined using different experimental methods and different data treatment procedures, were analyzed. The possibility of using random break model as an alternative approach to describing polymer thermal degradation curves obtained by thermal analysis methods was demonstrated by the example of polyethylene.