Thermo-oxidative degradation of MMA–St copolymer and EPS lost foams: Kinetics study

The thermal degradation of MMA–St random copolymer and EPS lost foams was studied by thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) oxygen atmospheres and the results were compared with nitrogen one. The stabilizing effect of oxygen on thermal degradation of both foams and consequently possible mechanism was investigated. The activation energy was calculated under nitrogen and oxygen atmospheres by the Flynn–Wall–Ozawa method as a reliable way of determining the kinetic parameters. In this study the correlation method and isokinetic relationship (IKR) were used to estimate a model-independent pre-exponential factor (ln A) corresponding to a given degree of conversion under both atmospheres.