Thermal crosslinking of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) with 2-dibutylamino-4,6-dithiol-s-triazine (DB) and MgO has been studied to determine the kinetic parameters such as induction period (t0), rate constant (k), and activation energy (E), and to elucidate the structure of crosslink and the crosslinking mechanism. The thermal crosslinking was treated as a pseudo-first-order reaction. In the crosslinking, k and t0 were about 0.075 min?1 and 6.8 min at 180°C, respectively, and E was 16.6 and 14.2 kcal/mole for k and 1/t0, respectively. The structure of crosslink was confirmed to be indicated as the following scheme (I) from the results of model reactions and IR spectra of crosslinked products The crosslinking reaction was found to proceed through the following three processes: (1) formation of DB-Mg from DB and MgO; (2) formation of DB-Mg pendants by the reaction of PVC with DB-Mg; and (3) formation of crosslink by the reaction of PVC with DB-Mg pendants.
