The thermal de-binding of a metal injection molded (MIM) copper part was investigated at four different heating rates using a thermo-nanobalance coupled with infrared (FTIR) and mass spectrometry (MS), respectively. The FTIR and MS analysis have been employed to study the chemical reactions during thermal decomposition of the MIM polymeric binder. These techniques are effective for determining the thermal stability and product evolution as a function of temperature. The polymeric binder decomposition starts at approximately 250 degrees C yielding hydrocarbons in the C1-C6 range, with methane, ethylene, propylene, C4 and C5 composing the majority of gaseous products. The major decomposition reaction of polymeric binder was found to be autocatalytic. By using Netzsch thermo-kinetics software, a non-linear regression model was established. The predicted chemical reactions for the MIM thermal de-binding model were found to agree well with the calculated model curves. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.