Understanding of thermal/thermo-oxidative degradation kinetics of polythiophene nanoparticles

The polythiophene nanoparticles (nano-PT) were prepared with average diameter of 20-35 nm. The nanostructurals of polythiophene were confirmed by TEM and SEM analyzes. The kinetics of the thermal degradation and thermal oxidative degradation of nano-PT were investigated by thermogravimetric analysis. Kissinger method, Flynn-Wall-Ozawa method, and advanced isoconversional method have been used to determine the activation energies of nano-PT degradation. The results showed that the thermal stability of nano-PT in pure N2 is higher than that in air atmosphere. The analyzes of the solid-state processes mechanism of nano-PT by Criado et al. method showed: the thermal degradation process of nano-PT goes to a mechanism involving second-order (F 2 mechanism); otherwise, the thermo-oxidative degradation process of nano-PT is corresponding to a phase boundary controlled reaction mechanism (R 2 mechanism). © 2012 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary.