Experimental and theoretical investigations of thermal degradation behaviors of poly(aryl ether sulfone)s

Abstract

ABSTRACTDensity functional theory (DFT) calculation and pyrolysis gas chromatography mass spectrometry (PyGC/MS) analysis were combined to investigate the thermal degradation behavior of polysulfone, poly(ether sulfone) and poly(phenylene sulfone). A series of pyrolysis temperatures from 500°C to 700°C with the interval of 50°C were chosen for their PyGC/MS analyses, and the obtained results indicate that phenol as a pyrolysis product is preferentially generated over SO2 during their pyrolysis. In DFT calculations, their bond dissociation energies and first-stage fragmentation products diradicals at various temperatures were calculated by the M05-2x method, and their preferentially produced pyrolysates estimated from the obtained results are in accordance with the experimental findings.