CORRELATION BETWEEN HEAT OF COMBUSTION AND CHEMICAL-STRUCTURE OF POLYMERS

Two distinct approaches pertaining to the chemical structure are appli ed to predict the specific heat of combustion (DELTAh(c)) of polymers. It has been found that the experimental and calculated values of DELT Ah(c) are in good agreement, particularly for polymers of high hydroge n content and low atomic ratio of halogen/carbon. For copolymers, DELT Ah(c) is demonstrated to be a weight-average of its component values d erived from the corresponding homopolymers. The practical implications of the present findings are discussed.