Thermal stability of aliphatic polyesters

In order to investigate the correlation of thermal stability and molecular structure of aliphatic polyesters, the thermal decomposition temperature and thermal decomposition activation energy of aliphatic polyesters such as polyethylene-sudcinate (PESu), polybutylene-succinate (PBSu), polyhexylene-succinate (PHSu), polyhexylene-sebacate (PHSe) was studied by non-isothermogravimetry analysis (TG) and the data were treated with Flynn method (also called iso-conversion method). Results show that the studied aliphatic polyesters have good thermal stability, the initial decomposition temperature is all over 310°C when the heating rate is 5°C/min, which can be safely synthesized and processed; the thermal decomposition temperature and thermal decomposition activation energy increases with the, content of ester group decreasing. These results are important for the molecular design, synthesis and processing art of aliphatic polyesters.