Sensitive detection of degradation of modified poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene ether) by dynamic load thermomechanical analysis

Weathering of a modified poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene ether) (m-PPE) was studied. It was found that the glass transition temperature or the complex modulus of the exposed sample in bulky state was almost the same as that o f the unexposed sample. SEC, IR and TG-FT IR measurements proved that only the surface region of the exposed sample degraded. We report the applicatio n of dynamic load thermomechanical analysis (DL-TMA) using compressive osci llating load to the analysis of surface degradation of m-PPE. The results f rom the DL-TMA method have close relation with the molecular weight of the surface region. It was proved that the surface degradation is detectable in the bulk state with high sensitivity by applying DL-TMA. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.