Thermal Degradation Kinetics of Deoxybenzoin Polymer

The thermal degradation behavior of 4, 4-bishydroxydeoxybenzoin-polyphosphonate( BHDB-PPN) was investigated by gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer( GC-MS)and thermogravimetric analysis( TGA). It was found that BHDBPPN exhibited a different char formation way from the previous proposed mechanism based on the residue analysis by Fourier transform infrared spectra( FTIR) and the gas phase analysis by GC-MS. The thermal degradation kinetics was studied through TGA at various heating rates to identify the activation energy of BHDBPPN at two decomposition stages which were mainly attributed to the evolved phenol and benzene respectively. It was demonstrated that the activation energy at the second stage was much higher than that at the first stage,indicating that more energy was required to break the P—C bond to form benzene in comparison to the formation of phenol.