“…As reported in the literature (Gaan & Sun, 2007a, 2007bHorrocks, Wang, Hall, Sunmonu, & Pearson, 2000), cotton decomposes through three steps: the first (300-400 • C) involves two competitive pathways, which yield aliphatic char and volatile products; in the second and third step (400-800 • C), some aliphatic char converts to aromatic, yielding CO and CO 2 as a consequence of simultaneous carbonisation and char oxidation. In the present work, two decomposition steps are observed between 300 and 550 • C. In the presence of silica alone and in couple with phosphorus, the degradation profile of cotton strongly changes: indeed, the first step is favoured and, consequently, the char formation occurs, whereas the second step almost disappears (the T max 2 values collected in Table 6 are negligible).…”