Much attention has been devoted to disposing traditional-sized poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) waste by pyrolysis for methyl methacrylate (MMA). The pyrolysis of micron-sized PMMA waste, which may be different from that of traditional-sized PMMA waste, received little concern. The present study investigated the kinetics and volatile products of micron-sized PMMA waste pyrolysis in inert atmosphere using thermogravimetry and Fourier transform infrared analysis. A global optimization algorithm namely Shuffled Complex Evolution (SCE) was employed to simultaneously optimize the kinetic parameters. Results indicated that one shoulder and one peak occurred in the MLR variations with temperature. The values of the MLR at the shoulder and peak, the average MLR all increased with the heating rate. The optimized kinetic parameters by SCE can be utilized to well reproduce the experimental thermogravimetric data. The values of activation energy and natural logarithm of pre-exponential factor were in the range of 235.95–248.61 kJ/mol and 16.96–28.76 min⁻¹, respectively. The value of activation energy of micron-sized PMMA waste pyrolysis under the present study was greater than that of the traditional-sized PMMA pyrolysis in the previous studies. MMA and CO₂ were the major volatile products generated from the micron-sized PMMA waste pyrolysis. The volatile products yield at peak was much larger than that at shoulder. The MMA and CO₂ yield were in the range of 87.98–93.54% and 6.46–12.02%, respectively. High MMA yield may be obtained from the pyrolysis of micron-sized PMMA waste in inert atmosphere by appropriately increasing the heating rate adopted in the reactors in the practical applications.

通过热解甲基丙烯酸甲酯（MMA），已将大量注意力投入到处理传统尺寸的聚甲基丙烯酸甲酯（PMMA）废物。微米级PMMA废料的热解可能与传统尺寸的PMMA废料不同，因此很少有人关注。本研究使用热重分析和傅里叶变换红外分析技术研究了在惰性气氛中微米级PMMA废料热解的动力学和挥发性产物。全局优化算法，即混洗复杂进化（SCE）被用来同时优化动力学参数。结果表明，MLR随温度的变化出现了一个肩峰和一个峰。肩峰和峰处的MLR值（平均MLR）均随加热速率而增加。SCE优化的动力学参数可用于很好地再现实验热重数据。活化能和指数前自然对数值在235.95–248.61 kJ / mol和16.96–28.76 min之间^-1。在本研究中，微米级PMMA废料热解的活化能值大于以前研究中传统尺寸的PMMA热解的活化能。MMA和CO ₂是微米级PMMA废物热解产生的主要挥发性产物。峰值时的挥发性产物的收率远高于肩峰。MMA和CO _2的产率分别为87.98-93.54％和6.46-12.02％。在实际应用中，通过适当提高反应器中采用的加热速率，可以在惰性气氛中将微米级PMMA废料热解获得高MMA产量。