STRUCTURAL CHARACTERIZATION OF POLYMERIC MATERIALS BY PYROLYSIS-GC MS/

Pyrolysis-GC/MS(Py-GC/MS) has increasingly been utilized in the field of structural characterization of versatile polymeric materials. This technique often provides a simple but rapid and extremely sensitive to ol, not only for ordinary solvent soluble polymers, but also for intra ctable cured polymers with three-dimensional networks. Firstly, the hi story and scope of analytical pyrolysis are presented, and then the in strumental and methodological aspects of Py-GC/MS are briefly discusse d. Then, some recent typical applications of Py-GC/MS to the structura l characterization of various polymeric materials will be discussed in detail. These include the studies of sequence distribution of polyace tals by reactive pyrolysis in the presence of a catalyst, stereoregula rity of polystyrenes (PS) and poly(methyl methacrylate)s (PMMA), and t erminal groups of various PS, PMMA and polycarbonates (PC). (C) 1997 E lsevier Science Limited.