Thermal Decomposition Behaviour and Kinetics of Poly(Cyclohexenylene Carbonate)

The thermal decomposition behaviour of CO2-Cyclohexene oxide(CHO) copolymer poly(cyclohexene carbonate)(PCHC)) synthesized with varying carbonate content was studied by thermogravimetric analysis(TG) techniques.The influence of the carbonate content,and heating rate on the thermal decomposition behaviour was investigated in detail.The thermogravimetry curves of PCHC confirm two weight-loss steps.The kinetics of the thermal decomposition process were investigated with different kinetic methods(Kinssinger and Flynn-Wall-Ozawa method) with data from TG analysis under dynamic conditions.The apparent activation energies of the main thermal decomposition step of the PCHC thermal decomposition calculated with the two methods,about 144.51 kJ/mol and 143.23 kJ/mol,were in good agreement with each other.The solid-state decomposition process is a Sigmoidal A2 type in terms of the Coats-Redfern results.