Abstract: Low density polyethylene (PE-LD) was grafted with 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate (HEA) forming a copolymer (PE-LD-g-HEA) by solidphase method. The structure of the PE-LD and PE-LD-g-HEA during aging treatment at different temperatures in air was studied using Xray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), and the thermal decomposition kinetics was studied by thermogravimetry. Because PE-LD-g-HEA had more long chain branches than PE-LD, its crystallinity was less influenced by aging treatment, the main chain was less scissored, and the thermal stability was better than PELD. The apparent activation energy, preexponential factor, and reaction order were determined by Kissinger and Crane methods were 8863 kJ/mol, 1.17×106 s-1 and 0.88 for PE-LD, and 217.35 kJ/mol, 5.92×1015 s-1 and 0.95 for PE-LD-g-HEA, respectively. The value of the apparent activation energy determined by Ozawa method was close to that by Kissinger method.

Key words: low density polyethylene, 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate grafted low density polyethylene, thermal decomposition, kinetics