Thermal Degradation of Copolymers

The report is principally concerned with the thermal degradation of two copolymer systems, methyl methacrylatemethyl acrylate and methyl methacrylatebutyl acrylate. The photo-degradation of the methyl methacrylate methyl acrylate system was also studied insofar as it is relevant to the thermal reaction. An accurate method, making use of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, was devised and applied to these and other acrylatemethacrylate systems. For both systems a series of copolymers covering the whole composition range was synthesised. Thermal methods of analysis, such as thermogravimetric analysis TGA and thermal volatilisation analysis TVA, showed that the copolymers became more stable to thermal breakdown as the acrylate content was increased. The gaseous degradation products, liquid products, chain fragments and residue were each examined separately.