Investigation of the influence of supercritical carbon dioxide treatment on meta-aramid fiber: Thermal decomposition behavior and kinetics

Abstract Influence of supercritical carbon dioxide (SCF-CO2) on the thermal decomposition behavior and kinetics of meta-aramid fiber was investigated at the first time, in order to develop some fundamental bases for sustainably and cleanly manufacturing some relative products from this fiber with the supercritical green medium. Particularly, the thermal decomposition behavior of treated samples was explored and characterized by thermogravimetric and differential thermogravimetric analysis (TGA-DTGA). The kinetics of the main steps of thermal decomposition was also investigated via different kinetics models. The results show that an influence of SCF-CO2 treatment on the thermal decomposition behavior of the fiber was observed by TGA-DTGA, accompanied with successive and partially overlapped predominant two-step degradation as sample temperature from 380.0 °C to 700.0 °C, as well as a small pyrolysis Step three at 650.0 °C to 800.0 °C. Decreases in thermal property and behavior were detected by TGA-DTGA for the samples as treatment temperature from 80.0 °C to 120.0 °C. The fitted results reveal that good linear regressions of the TGA-DTGA data were achieved from the kinetics models accompanied with high values of adjusted R-Square. The kinetics parameter of the apparent activation energy (E) decreased with the treatment temperature from 80.0 °C to 120.0 °C, as well as with the conversion degree (α) of the samples. Moreover, a second-order chemical reaction mechanism for the predominant thermal decomposition steps was successfully supposed by Coats-Redfern and Achar-Brindley-Sharp-Wendworth models combined with a solid mechanism function of C2.