Synthesis and Degradation Studies of Polymer Structures Based on Polystyrene

This research is concerned with the preparation, characterisation and thermal degradation of various types of homo, bifunctional, metal containing, and linked block polymers based on polystyrene. A brief discussion about anionic polymers, including polystyrene ionomers based on bifunctional carboxyl-terminated polymer and monovalent and divalent metal ions, is presented in Chapter One. This chapter also reviews briefly the definition and classification of polymer degradation. Chapter Two presents an introduction to the experimental procedure of the several thermal analysis techniques employed in the present work, with emphasis on thermal volatilisation analysis as a more sophisticated technique. The techniques which were used to identify the degradation products are also briefly described. The preparation and characterisation of polystyrene made by free radical and anionic routes is considered in Chapter Three. The chapter also includes the preparation and characterisation of functionally-terminated polystyrenes with various end groups and metal salts derived from dicarboxyl-terminated polyatyrene. The thermal degradation of polystyrenes prepared by anionic and free radical routes is the subject of Chapter Four. Programmed heating experiments were employed to investigate the thermal behaviour of these materials. The volatile degradation products were studied by the GC-MS method. It was found that there is not much difference in the of the homopolymers but a considerable difference is observed in Tonset This chapter also contains the literature review on the thermal degradation of polystyrene. In Chapter Five, the detailed study of polystyrene volatile products is discussed. It is concluded that most of the volatile liquid fraction in polystyrene degradation depends on reactions of the secondary macroradical formed by backbone scission. The amounts of volatile liquid and cold ring fraction (CRF) products in the degradation of polystyrene samples have been determined gravimetrically under vacuum at 30