Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) copolymer blends with biodegradable polymers were obtained by conventional industrial plastic processing via extrusion. The production process of these materials in conventional extruder was a method that until recently was impossible to produce, due to the fact the PAN polymer initiated a degradation process before melting. However, it was developed a process that uses up to 28%/mass of glycerol as PAN plasticizer. The present work has the aim to study the thermal behavior, by DSC technique, of a PAN copolymer, whose composition was 94%/mass of acrylonitrile (AN) and 6%/mass of vinyl acetate (VA) and also of this copolymer mixed with up to 7%/mass of PCL and PHB-HV biodegradable polymers. In addition to that, a kinetic study was also carried out, by the Kissinger method, of the thermal event related to the degradation of the PAN copolymer and its blends. The PAN-co-VA(6%) copolymer showed an activation energy of about 78 kJ/mol and the PCL and PHB-HV blends showed activation energies of about 79 kJ/mol and 92 kJ/mol, respectively.
Polyacrylonitrile; biodegradable polymers; thermal behavior
