CHARACTERIZATION OF CHITIN-BASED POLYMER HYBRIDS BY TEMPERATURE-PROGRAMMED ANALYTICAL PYROLYSIS TECHNIQUES .1. CHITIN-GRAFT-POLY(2-METHYL-2-OXAZOLINE) POLY(VINYL CHLORIDE) BLENDS

Chitin-graft-poly(2-methyl-2-oxazaline)/poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) ble nds were characterized by means of temperature-programmed analytical p yrolysis techniques such as temperature-programmed pyrolysis-mass spec trometry (TPPy-MS), TPPy-atomic emission detection (TPPy-AED), and TPP y-gas chromatography (TPPy-GC) mainly focusing on their miscibility an d sites of the intermolecular interactions. The blends degraded stepwi sely in almost three stages corresponding to the degradation of respec tive blending polymers. However, each degradation peak temperature cha nged as a function of the blend composition, in particular that of the first degradation stage mostly corresponding to the dehydrochlorinati on stage for PVC showed a minimum temperature for the blend with the s aturated composition of miscibility. During the dehydrochlorination st age for PVC, many characteristic products formed from the chitin deriv ative were also evolved, suggesting the intermolecular interactions be tween PVC and the chitin derivative. Among these, a specific hybrid pr oduct, benzoic acid reflecting the segmental interaction between PVC a nd the chitin derivative was observed only for the blend with the satu rated composition of miscibility. The evolution peak temperatures and the amounts of the characteristic degradation products were also corre lated to the miscibility of the blends. In addition, the mechanisms of the intermolecular interaction of the blends were discussed.