Study of thermal stabilization for polystyrene/carbon nanocomposites via TG/DSC techniques Sh. A. Mansour Received: 3 May 2012 / Accepted: 10 July 2012 / Published online: 3 August 2012 Ó Akade ´miai Kiado ´, Budapest, Hungary 2012 Abstract The degradability and durability for polymer– nanocomposites under various environmental conditions are from the essential fields of research. This study was carried out to examine the thermal stability of polystyrene loaded by carbon (C) nanoparticles up to 20 wt% content. The thermal degradation of PS/C nanocomposites were studied by thermogravimetry analysis and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) under non-isothermal condi- tion and inert gas atmosphere at constant heating rate 10 °C min -1 . The variation of degradation characteristic temperatures as a function of C content has been a non- monotonic behavior. The obtained results suggested that the C nanoparticles act as a promoter slowing down the degradation and providing a protective barrier to the nanocomposite, except 5 wt% C content. The latter exception was confirmed by DSC curve through the emergence of a small endothermic peak before the funda- mental endothermic, melting, one. Keywords Nanocomposites Á Polystyrene Á Carbon nanoparticles Á Thermal stability Introduction Polystyrene (PS) has been attracting extensive interest in polymer science due to its processing and outstanding properties such as thermal resistance, low density, excel- lent mechanical durability, and convenience of processing and molding. Polystyrene has some shortcomings from the point of view of some practical applications, e.g., high flammability and severe dripping during combustion [1]. These shortcomings and others can be overcome by means of the ‘‘nanocomposites approach’’. Accordingly, many researchers investigated PS nanocomposites using different nanoparticle fillers, concerning the effect of the nanopar- ticles’ type and its size on polymer thermal stability [2–6]. Recently, many attempts were made to determine the optimum nanofiller content for the enhancement of the PS nanocomposites’ thermal stability [6–9]. Among PS nanocomposites, PS/inorganic nanocomposites have attracted wide interest because the addition of inorganic particles to polymer matrix could be enhancing the mechanical, flameretardant, magnetic, electrical, and ther- mal stabilization, delaying thermal degradation, of poly- mers [7]. The thermal stabilization of polymer nanocomposites is considered an important factor in both the scientific and industrial fields. A study of the thermal stabilization for polymer nanocomposites provides the required information about the period of the applicability time of such nano- composites. The quantitative study of solid state transfor- mation in various kinds of materials by means of thermogravimetric (TG) analysis, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and differential thermal analysis tech- niques has been widely discussed in the literature [10–13]. It is known that the common technique to study the kinetics of polymer degradation is TG, whereas DSC is usually Sh. A. Mansour (&) Basic Engineering Science Department, Faculty of Engineering, Menofia University, Shebin El-Kom, Egypt e-mail: shehab_mansour@yahoo.com Present Address: Sh. A. Mansour Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Firat University, Elazig, Turkey 123 J Therm Anal Calorim (2013) 112:579–583 DOI 10.1007/s10973-012-2595-9