Pyrolysis Characteristics of Castor Oil through Thermogravimetric Coupled with Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy

To comprehensively investigate the pyrolysis characteristics of castor oil under inert atmosphere, thermogravimetric coupled with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (TG-FTIR) is employed at heating rate of 10 K min-1 from 298.2 K to 873.2 K and the released products during pyrolysis process are detected by FTIR online. According to the results, only one mass loss step is observed from TG and an unimodal structure is exhibited in DTG correspondingly. Meanwhile, the released products for pyrolysis of castor oil mainly include aldehyde, alkane, olefin, ether, CO2, and H2O. Among the released products, alkane accounts for the predominant one. The maximum absorbance of all released products is observed at 677.8 K and no cyclic compounds as well as aromatic compounds have been detected.