polymers Article A Statistical Analysis on the Effect of Antioxidants on the Thermal-Oxidative Stability of Commercial Mass- and Emulsion-Polymerized ABS Rudinei Fiorio 1,* , Dagmar R. D’hooge 2,3,* , Kim Ragaert 1 and Ludwig Cardon 1 1 Centre for Polymer and Material Technologies, Department of Materials, Textiles and Chemical Engineering, Ghent University, Technologiepark 915, 9052 Zwijnaarde, Belgium;
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[email protected] (L.C.) 2 Laboratory for Chemical Technology, Department of Materials, Textiles and Chemical Engineering, Ghent University, Technologiepark 914, 9052 Zwijnaarde, Belgium 3 Centre for Textiles Science and Engineering, Department of Materials, Textiles and Chemical Engineering, Ghent University, Technologiepark 907, 9052 Zwijnaarde, Belgium * Correspondence: rudinei.fi
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[email protected] (D.R.D.); Tel.: +32-092-945-830 (R.F.); +32-093-311-772 (D.R.D.) Received: 27 November 2018; Accepted: 20 December 2018; Published: 25 December 2018 Abstract: In the present work, statistical analysis (16 processing conditions and 2 virgin unmodified samples) is performed to study the influence of antioxidants (AOs) during acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene terpolymer (ABS) melt-blending (220 ◦C) on the degradation of the polybutadiene (PB) rich phase, the oxidation onset temperature (OOT), the oxidation peak temperature (OP), and the yellowing index (YI). Predictive equations are constructed, with a focus on three commercial AOs (two primary: Irganox 1076 and 245; and one secondary: Irgafos 168) and two commercial ABS types (mass- and emulsion-polymerized). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) results indicate that the nitrile absorption peak at 2237 cm−1 is recommended as reference peak to identify chemical changes in the PB content.