Thermogravimetry of chitosan with nanofillers

In the present paper the degradation of chitosan and its blends with hydroxyapatite, nanoclay and nanosilver as well as the impact of those nanofillers added to chitosan on its decomposition at high temperatures are studied. The applied films of thickness 50 μm were obtained by casting the acidic solutions: chitosan and its blends with hydroxyapatite, nanoclay and nanosilver. To mix solutions with nanofillers ultrasounds were applied. To study the thermal degradation we applied thermogravimetry in dynamic and static conditions, which is a method of thermal analysis involving the continuous recording of weight loss Based on experimental data activation energies of thermal decomposition close to a maximum rate loss were calculated using different methods for chitosan and its blends with hydroxyapatite, nanoclay and nanosilver. The addition of three nanofillers mentioned above result in a visual increase of activation energy of thermal degradation process of chitosan due to slower evolution of decomposed gases from chitosan matrix reflected by a slower rate of weight loss.