Chemical modification of Posidonia with cyclic anhydrides: effect on thermal stability

In the present work, we studied the chemical modification of Posidonia with maleic (AM) and phthalic (AP) anhydrides, and in the absence of any solvent. We used tripropylamine (TPA) as a catalyst and the mixture underwent an ultrasonic pretreatment. The influence of ultrasonic pretreating time, reaction time, temperature, anhydride concentration, was investigated. The extent of maleation and phthalation was measured by the percent of ester groups (TE), which increased when there was a parallel increment of anhydride concentration, reaction time, and temperature. Evidence of maleation and phthalation of the waste Posidonia biomass was provided by FT-IR and CP/MAS(13)C NMR. Thermogravimetric investigation of chemically modified Posidonia indicated a better thermal stability in comparison with the untreated Posidonia. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.