Kinetics and mechanism of thermal oxidative degradation of UV cured epoxy acrylate/phosphate triacrylate blends

Abstract

Tri(acryloyloxyethyl)phosphate (TAEP) was blended in different ratios with a commercial epoxy acrylate to obtain a series of UV curable flame retardant resins. The thermal oxidative degradation mechanism of their cured films in air was studied by thermogravimetric analysis and in situ Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. The cured film with TAEP addition showed improved thermal stability at elevated temperature with higher char yield. The kinetics of their thermal decomposition were evaluated by Kissinger, Friedman and Vachuska–Voboril methods. The results showed that the activation energies of the blends were lower than that of pure epoxy acrylate at lower degree of degradation, whereas higher activation energies were obtained at higher degree of degradation.