Many polymer applications are
sensitive to occurrence of low level
volatilization. On a large production
basis, even a small level of volatiles
(e.g., less than 1%) can have a major
impact on the processing of the
polymer. It is known that low levels
of volatiles can affect the injection
molding or blow molding processing
of polymers. Shown in Figure 7 is
the low level of volatilization
obtained for a single pellet of PET
resin. This measurement was
performed holding the sample under
gentle isothermal conditions at 130
C. The mass loss observed at 10
hours was 0.219% for the PET
pellet. This is an important aspect
for PET resins used to make
beverage containers as low levels of
soluble volatile components can
affect the taste of the beverage. The
high performance TGA instruments
from PerkinElmer provide the high
degree of sensitivity and stability to
make these long term measurements
possible.