Thermal Analysis Essay

Introduction

Studying the relationship between a sample’s weight and its temperature is one of most useful analytical methods because this relationship (mass and heat) can provide information about physical process (such as evaporation) and chemical process (such as thermal degradation) of material that causes the material to lose volatile gases. Therefore, to characterize wide verities of materials, thermogravimetric method (TGA) is widely thermal analysis techniques used to measure weight changes of a sample as a function of increasing temperature and time in controlled atmosphere. This method is very significant to study the effect of heat on the changing mass of the sample in which makes TGA ideal for determining thermal or oxidative stabilities of materials as well as their compositional properties.

Significance

TGA measurements provide valuable information that can be used to select materials end use applications, predict product performance and improve product quality. In addition, it provides complimentary and supplementary characterization information to the most commonly used thermal technique, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) method. Therefore, TGA technique is particularly useful

The green line illustrates the sequences of weight change, which indicates that the temperature at which the weight loos begins, and the material starts to decompose or react. The sample stated to decompose and volatilize at around 450 °C and the most polymer content fully decomposed before 600 °C. The blue line shows the number of thermal events taking place in the sample testing and as well indicates the point of greatest rate of change on weight loss curve. The red line indicates the remaining fillers and the percentage of carbon black on material. Many examples of TGA thermograms are displayed in appendix part such as material at constant temperature, multiple transformation peaks and the position of carbon