Novel characterization of branching and/or cross-linking structures in condensation polymers by reactive pyrolysis-gas chromatography in the presence of organic alkaline

The reactive pyrolysis-gas chromatography technique was applied to verify the branching and/or cross-linking structures in an industrially available polycarbonate (PC) sample and its thermally treated one through identification of specific pyrolysis products directly reflecting the related abnormal structures. On the pyrogram of the thermally treated sample, the peaks reflecting the abnormal structures such as branching and/or cross-linking were observed together with those reflecting main chain and end groups. Furthermore, the fact that some of those characteristic peaks were also observed on the pyrogram of the industrially available PC sample prepared by the melt method indicated that the branching and/or cross-linking reactions would occur to some extent in the PC synthesized by the melt method.