A study on the thermal degradation kinetics of syndiotactic polystyrene by thermogravimetric analysis

Abstract The thermal degradation kinetics of syndiotactic polystyrene (sPS) has been studied by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Applying both integral and differential methods, the values of the activation energy ( E a ) of the degradation process during its early stages and, when possible, the Arrhenius pre-exponential factor have been determined. All the methods appear to be suitable for the data treatment and give an E a value of about 50 kcal mol −1 , compared with 60 kcal mol −1 for atactic PS.