To better understand material performance in extreme environments, we probe the rapid heating mechanisms governing the behavior of amorphous polyolefin bismalimide (APO-BMI), a bismaleimide resin bound hollow glass microsphere syntactic foam. Here, thermogravimetic analysis (TGA) was used to expose APO-BMI materials to ballistic heating rates (&gt;500 °C/min) from room temperature to 1200°C, this while on a highly sensitive balance, and with decomposition derived evolved gas introduced to an evolved gas analysis (EGA) style quadrupole mass spectrometer, as in Figure 1. From the resultant evolved gas mass spectra, results can be correlated to sample heating to verify previous experimental results and simulation derived decomposition mechanisms. Furthermore, with precise mass loss at temperature, and relative gas composition, total pressure produced by mass and/or surface area can be calculated. To understand and illustrate morphological changes the APO-BMI samples were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and computerized tomography (CT) before and after simulated extreme environment exposure.

Syntactic foam decomposition product identification in extreme environments: Evolved gas mass spectrometry thermogravimetric analysis of amorphous polyolefin bismalimide

ACS Fall 2021

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