Structural characterization of polymeric materials by Pyrolysis—GC/MS

Abstract

Pyrolysis-GC/MS(Py-GC/MS) has increasingly been utilized in the field of structural characterization of versatile polymeric materials. This technique often provides a simple but rapid and extremely sensitive tool, not only for ordinary solvent soluble polymers, but also for intractable cured polymers with three-dimensional networks. Firstly, the history and scope of analytical pyrolysis are presented, and then the instrumental and methodological aspects of Py-GC/MS are briefly discussed. Then, some recent typical applications of Py-GC/MS to the structural characterization of various polymeric materials will be discussed in detail. These include the studies of sequence distribution of polyacetals by reactive pyrolysis in the presence of a catalyst, stereoregularity of polystyrenes (PS) and poly(methyl methacrylate)s (PMMA), and terminal groups of various PS, PMMA and polycarbonates (PC).