Thermal Decomposition and Glass Transition Temperature of Poly(methyl Methacrylate) and Poly(isobutyl Methacrylate)

Abstract

The thermal decomposition and the glass transition temperatures of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and poly(isobutyl methacrylate) (PiBuMA) were studied with a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). The undecomposed and decomposed polymers were analyzed by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) for molecular weight distributions and by DSC for changes in the thermal properties and glass transition temperatures, T. In the isothermal decomposition of PMMA and PiBuMA, depolymerization reactions exclusively are operative. During low temperature decompositions, longer PMMA chains depolymerize first. These are followed by the shorter chains. In the case of PiBuMA, the shorter chains depolymerize first. Some of these undergo chain recombinations to yield very high molecular weight products. For identical values of weight loss, the respective decomposition temperatures for PiBuMA are 40 to 70 K lower than those for PMMA. The activation energies of decomposition (42 kJ/mol for PMMA and 67 kJ/mol for PiBuMA) have been found to be lower than those reported in the literature. Although T_g∞ of PiBuMA (331 K) agrees well with the literature value (326 K), T_g∞ of atactic PMMA (394 K) is higher than the reported value (378 K).