Thermal degradation of polymethacrylonitrile

Abstract

The thermal degradation properties of polymethacrylonitrile (PMAN) have been studied by isothermal heating and thermogravimetric analysis. There are two initiation processes for weight loss from PMAN degraded in nitrogen, namely chain-end and random scission initiation. There is also an internal cyclization reaction which forms a thermally stable residue during the thermal degradation process. The activation energies of the weight loss and formation of stable residues have been calculated. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy has been used to investigate the structure of the stable residue and thus to confirm the degradation mechanism.