MODELING THE DEGRADATION KINETICS OF POLY(2-HEXYNE) MEMBRANES VIA GEL-PERMEATION CHROMATOGRAPHY

Poly(2-hexyne) is a substituted polyacetylene tractable into strong, t hin membrane in spite of its relative instability, which can be overco me by using a suitable antioxidant. The evolution of chain scission wi th time for the thermo-oxidative degradation of poly(2-hexyne) in air was reported recently by the authors. Here, kinetic parameters of chai n scission are estimated and influence of the activation energy of wei ght loss on the relationship between the chain scission and the weight loss is investigated. The study was carried out with samples of diffe rent molecular weight as well as in the presence of N-phenyl-alpha-nap hthylamine as an antioxidant agent. All of these variables are related to the stability of poly(2-hexyne) films, characterized by the onset temperatures at which 0.5% weight loss and a critical. number of chain scission occur.