Quantification of Aerospace Polymer Blends by Thermogravimetric Analysis and Infrared Spectrometry

ABSTRACT Ethylene-propylene-diene elastomer (EPDM) is employed as thermal insulation for rocket motors, as well as EPDM blends with ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) have been used in the aerospace industry. The quantification of these blends is more common using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometry (FT-IR) by transmission mode, but without discussing sample preparation and methodology error. Considering this fact, a methodology was developed for determining EVA content in binary blend with EPDM samples, by Universal Attenuated Total Reflection (UATR) technique, associated to thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). This last one, it was applied to determine Vinyl Acetate (VA) content in EVA and to identify differences between EPDM/EVA blends. Samples of the analyzed blends showed two VA contents and five proportions of EPDM/EVA: 90/10, 70/30, 50/50, 30/70, and 10/90. The carbonyl stretching vibration band C=O at 1740 cm-1 was used as analytical band in FT-IR quantification. Finally, the results presented excellent accuracy with a good linear correlation coefficient (R > 0.940) and with relative error values lower than 2%, respecting the precision limits of the FT-IR spectrometer.