THERMOANALYTICAL EVALUATION OF READILY AVAILABLE REFERENCE POLYMERS -THERMOPLASTICS

A commercial set of polymers has been characterized by TG-DTA, DSC, TM A, FTIR spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD). Thermal and mechanical stability as well as the polymer glass transition temperat ure, T-g, and melt temperature, T-m, have been documented. There is a good correlation between measured T-g and T-m values and published dat a. The degree of polymer crystallinity for polyethylene has been verif ied by XRD. The credibility and stability of these reference polymers is based on a comparison of their thermal properties, over a wide rang e of temperatures from two versions of a reference set, published in 1 979 (A) and 1994 (B). The thermal properties and crystallinity of thes e polymers have stood the test of time and are reliable, readily avail able and consistent.