Thermolysis of acetylene terminated sulfone resins. I. Volatile products of degradation

Abstract

Acetylene terminated sulfone (ATS) resin fractions and related model polymers have been pyrolysed to 1000°C under high vacuum conditions. Thermal volatilization analysis (TVA) experiments were performed to provide a semi-quantitative kinetic analysis of degradation processes which produce volatile by-products. Application of sub-ambient thermal volatilization analysis (SATVA) in conjunction with ancillary techniques of analysis allowed quantitative measure of the condensable volatile product distribution as a function of pyrolysis temperature. The noncondensable volatile products of degradation were determined by the technique of adsorption thermal volatilization analysis (ATVA) used in conjunction with quantitative gas phase infrared spectroscopy. Four overlapping volatile forming processes were identified and characterized through their product distributions. The yields of noncondensable products of degradation and the char yield increased with the crosslink density. In contrast, the yields of condensable volatile products remained insensitive to crosslink density.