Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
1197130 Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 2008 7 Pages PDF
Abstract

Wood polymer composites (WPC) of several wood types (spruce, beech), chemically modified wood (acetylated, propionated), and different polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinylchloride, melamine resin) were prepared and analyzed by a two-stage pyrolysis process. Pyrolysis temperatures and times were varied to separate wood and polymer matrix and obtain at first a chromatogram only of the woody material and in the second stage a profile of the synthetic polymer. Using this two-stage approach simplifies the chromatograms compared to a single high temperature pyrolysis and thus makes identification of components easy. Optimum conditions for polyolefins were found to be a prepyrolysis step at 550 °C, 10 s followed by pyrolysis at 700 °C, 10 s, which also worked very well for all other polymers. The method was successfully applied to elucidate the composition of five commercial WPCs.

Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Chemistry Analytical Chemistry
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