A temperature programmed pyrolysis-mass spectrometric (TPPy-MS) system was developed for evolved gas analysis for polymeric materials. In this system, a temperature programmable micro-furnace pyrolyzer was directly coupled with a quadrupole mass spectrometer
via a highly deactivated metal capillary. Thus developed system was applied to the following characterization of various functional polymers:
a) Thermal degradation process of a flame-retarded poly(butylene terephthalate) (FR-PBT) with a synergistic flame-retardant system based on a brominated polycarbonate (Br-PC) and Sb
2O
3 was investigated. During the degradation of FR-PBT, the evolution of brominated phenols and HBr proved to be closely related to the synergistic effect of Sb
2O
3 on the decomposition of Br-PC in the flame retardant system. Furthermore, the evolution of the flame poisoning SbBr
3 caused by the synergistic effect of Sb
2O
3 with Br-PC was also able to be monitored.
b) Chitin derivative/poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) blends were characterized mainly in terms of their miscibility and sites of the intermolecular interactions. Stepwise degradation apparently in three stages was commonly observed for the blends corresponding to the degradation of the respective blending polymers. However, each degradation peak temperature proved to change correlating to the miscibility of the blends. Moreover, during the dehydrochlorination stage for PVC at relatively lower temperatures below 300°C, the evolution of many characteristic products formed from the chitin derivative was also observed, suggesting that the intimate intermolecular interactions between the chitin derivative and PVC were triggering the degradation of the chitin derivatives which should be stable up to
ca. 350°C.
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