The Thermal Degradation of Copolymers of Vinyl Alcohol

Bakhat, Mohammad Feroze (1976) The Thermal Degradation of Copolymers of Vinyl Alcohol. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Since poly(vinyl acetate), poly(vinyl alcohol), poly(vinyl butyral) and their intermediate copolymers are important commercial plastics and since it is important that commercial materials should be as stable as possible to the environment, a great deal of attention has been given studying the relationship between the synthesis and thermal stability of these materials. Brief notes on the general concept of polymer degradation, the history of poly(vinyl acetate), poly(vinyl alcohol) and poly(vinyl butyral) and their commercial importance in various fields are given in Chapter 1. The introductory chapter also reviews briefly the relationships between the chemical structure and thermal stability of vinyl copolymers. Chapter 2 includes a list of material used in this work and gives a description of the apparatus and experimental techniques employed in the present study. The first part deals with the method of preparation of the copolymers of vinyl alcohol and the second section describes the techniques of thermal analysis used to identify the degradation products. A detailed study of the hydrolysis of poly(vinyl acetate) is given in Chapter 3. The initial rate is independent of the NaOH/ester ratio and reaction follows second order kinetics in the initial stages. The rate of a reaction responds to solvent composition, reaction temperature and the nature of the catalyst. In the ethanol/H2O solvent system, the rate is enhanced by a closer coiling of the macromolecules. The thermal degradation of poly(vinyl acetate) and copolymers of vinyl acetate and vinyl alcohol is discussed in detail in Chapter 4. The copolymers are less stable than poly(vinyl acetate) below 340

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Keywords: Polymer chemistry, Thermodynamics
• Date of Award: 1976
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:1976-78742
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 30 Jan 2020 14:57
• Last Modified: 30 Jan 2020 14:57
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/78742