A Torsional Braid Analysis of Polymethacrylates, Polyacrylate, Poly(vinyl alcohol), and Their Related Polymers during the Thermal Degradation

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Abstract
The torsional braid analysis (TBA), thermogravimetry, and IR spectroscopy of polymethacrylates, polyacrylate, poly(vinyl alcohol), and their related polymers were carried out in air. The chemorheological properties of these polymers are markedly dependent on their chemical structures. First, the α-hydrogen atom plays an important role. In poly(methyl acrylate), the chemorheological behavior is similar to that of the polymers which have tendency to crosslink, whereas poly(methyl methacrylate) does not show any such behavior. A similar situation was found when comparing poly(acrylic acid) with poly(methacrylic acid). At the same time, the influence of the functional groups was examined. Second, the change in the mechanical properties due to crosslinking becomes more noticeable with an increase in the side-chain length of the methacrylate polymers. Furthermore, in addition to procedures used in the previous work, a new method of kinetic analysis of the heating-rate dependence was carried out in the case of poly(acrylic acid). The apparent activation energies estimated by this treatment are in good agreement with those estimated by other procedures.