Formation of bisphenol A by thermal degradation of poly(bisphenol A carbonate)

Abstract

The thermal decomposition of poly(bisphenol A carbonate) (PoC) results in the formation of the endocrine disruptor bisphenol A (BPA). In the present work, we investigated the kinetics of the thermal decomposition of PoC, and the subsequent decomposition of BPA, under pyrolysis conditions and in the presence of oxygen by using infrared image furnace-ion attachment mass spectrometry. The decomposition of PoC obeyed Arrhenius kinetics, which allowed us to determine the activation energy ( E a) for thermal decomposition to BPA from Arrhenius plots. From the selected ion monitoring curves for BPA, E a for thermal decomposition in a nitrogen atmosphere was calculated to be 133.2 kcal mol −1, whereas E a for oxidative thermal decomposition was calculated to be approximately 35% lower (86.5 kcal mol −1).