Thermal Decomposition Mechanism of P(DAC-AM) with Serial Cationicity and Intrinsic Viscosity

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the copolymer P(DAC-AM) breaks down when heated, revealing that its decomposition is more complex than the sum of its parts.

Contribution

The study reveals that the thermal decomposition of P(DAC-AM) involves interactions between its monomers, not just a simple combination of homopolymer behaviors.

Findings

The thermal decomposition of P(DAC-AM) occurs in two stages with distinct activation energy trends.

The reaction order of P(DAC-AM) decomposition varies between stages, indicating complex kinetics.

The decomposition mechanism of P(DAC-AM) is influenced by interactions between its monomer units.

Abstract

The thermal decomposition of the thermodynamic, kinetic and mechanisms of copolymer P(DAC-AM) samples with serial cationicity and intrinsic viscosity ([η]), and the control samples of homopolymer PAM and PDAC, were studied and analyzed using TG, DSC, FTIR. The results of the thermal decomposition thermodynamics confirmed that the thermal decomposition processes of the serial P(DAC-AM) samples and the two control samples could be divided into two stages. It was found that the processes of the copolymer P(DAC-AM) samples were not a simple superposition of those of homopolymers, whose monomers had composed the unit structures of the copolymer, but there were interactions between the two suspension groups. The results of thermal decomposition kinetics showed that the apparent activation energy (E) of the thermal decomposition process of all polymer samples had different varying trends in the terms of weight-loss rate (α). The reaction order (n) of the thermal decomposition of P(DAC-AM) in Stage I and II was close to 1, but in the former and the latter it tended to be 2 and 0.5, respectively. Finally, the thermal decomposition mechanism of copolymer P(DAC-AM) samples was discussed. The above research could not only fill in the knowledge vacancy of the thermal decomposition of the thermodynamic, kinetic and mechanisms of P(DAC-AM), but could also lay a foundation for the study of thermal decomposition mechanisms of the other types of polymers, including cationic polymers.

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