Abstract
The thermal degradation of an immiscible alloy, polycarbonate/acrylonitrile butadiene styrene copolymer (PC/ABS), was studied in comparison with that of industrialy used polyphenylene ether/high impact polystyrene (PPE/HIPS), a typical miscible alloy. Alloys of five different compositions were subjected to TGA, DTG, and pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. A simple additivity was noted in the thermal degradation of PC/ABS alloys: deviation from the calculated values was larger with PPE/HIPS alloys than with PC/ABS alloys. In particular, the degradation of PC was accelerated for alloys with lower PC contents. The degradation of HIPS was retarded for the PPE/HIPS alloy. The degradation phenomena estimated from the scission products agree with the DTG data. The effect of mutual interaction between the polymers composing the alloy on thermal degradation was clearly shown.
