Thermal behavior and decomposition kinetic studies of biomedical UHMWPE/vitamin C compounds

in this paper, the effects of adding vitamin c to biomedical ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (b-uhmwpe) on thermal behavior and thermal degradation kinetics are investigated. the kinetic studies were conducted using ozawa–flynn–wall (ofw), corresponding to pre-exponential factor (a) and activation energy (ea). compounds with 1.0 and 2.0% mass vitamin c exhibited a lower decomposition rate. activation energy results from the ofw and kissinger methods were close to each other and showed a dependence on the degree of conversion (α), with ea being an increasing function of conversion degree to b-uhmwpe and a decreasing function for the compounds. finally, the pre-exponential factor increases with the addition of vitamin c, favoring its interaction with the free radicals originated from the thermal degradation of b-uhmwpe, also suggesting a reduction in its decomposition rate.