Thermal stability and degradation of poly(N-(4-chlorophenyl) acrylamide) homopolymer and copolymer of N-(4-chlorophenyl) acrylamide with methyl methacrylate

Different concentrations of copolymer of (N-(4-chlorophenyl) acrylamide) (CA) with methyl methacrylate (MMA) were prepared and the reactivity ratio values of copolymerization were calculated using ¹H NMR technique. Thermal analysis of the copolymers showed that the thermal stability is intermediate between poly(N-(4-chlorophenyl) acrylamide) (PCA) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) homopolymers. Thermal degradation products of the PCA were identified by GC–MS techniques. It seems that the mechanism of degradation of PCA homopolymer is characterized by free radical formation followed by recombination along the backbone chain. The activation energies of the thermal degradation of the copolymers were calculated using Arrhenius relationship.