Quali-quantitative thermoanalytical technique capable of exploiting the increase in temperature and inert or oxidizing atmospheres to identify the quantity and nature of the various components of the compounds.
The thermogravimetric technique therefore exploits the increase in temperature and the change of atmosphere, inert or oxidizing, to allow the material to degrade and gradually lose weight. The curve therefore presents “jumps” in correspondence with the mass loss of the sample, which can give thermal information, for example the temperature at which the material degrades completely, quantitative, i.e. the amount of sample that is actually lost in the “jump” and based on the degradation temperature also the additives present in the compound.
A striking example are the chloroprene-type polymers which have a characteristic peak around 330°C, as can be seen from the test image below.
As mentioned, the technique also allows rubber compounds to be evaluated quantitatively through the percentages of loss by weight, the amount of carbon black, the amount of inorganic filler of a polymeric component and the water/humidity.
The advantages of the technique are many, namely the ease of testing, low costs and times and the ease of testing samples in small quantities, when a large amount of material is not available, as well as the possibility of coupling to qualitative-quantitative techniques, or FT-IR and DSC, in order to have a complete picture of the polymeric matrix of the material and its characteristics and behavior in temperature.
The laboratory is able to perform the test according to the requirements of the international standards ISO 11358-1 and thanks to the experience acquired over years of testing, it also has a library of polymers for which it is possible to compare the curves of different samples.
