Kinetic study and thermal decomposition

7 Abstract 8 A systematic investigation of the thermal decomposition of viscoelastic memory 9 foam (VMF) was performed using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) to obtain the 10 kinetic parameters, and thermogravimetric analysis coupled to Fourier Transformed 11 Infrared Spectrometry (TGA-FTIR) and thermogravimetric analysis coupled to Mass 12 Spectrometry (TGA-MS) to obtain detailed information of evolved products on pyrolysis 13 and oxidative degradations. Two consecutive nth-order reactions were employed to 14 correlate the experimental data from dynamic and isothermal runs performed at three 15 different heating rates (5, 10 and 20 K/min) under an inert atmosphere. On the other 16 hand, for the kinetic study of the oxidative decomposition, the data from combustion 17 (synthetic air) and poor oxygen combustion (N2:O2=9:1) runs, at three heating rates and 18 under dynamic and isothermal conditions, were correlated simultaneously. A kinetic 19 model consisting of three consecutive reactions presented a really good correlation in all 20 runs. 21