CHARACTERIZATION OF COPOLYMER TYPE POLYCARBONATES BY REACTIVE PYROLYSIS-GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY IN THE PRESENCE OF ORGANIC ALKALI

Reactive pyrolysis-gas chromatography (Py-GC) in the presence of tetra methylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) was successfully applied to the determ ination of chemical compositions and end group content of two kinds of polycarbonate (PC) copolymers, the thermally and light stabilized PCs . The reactive pyrolysis of these PC copolymers enabled almost quantit ative detection of the constituents of the polymer sample as their met hyl ethers on the resulting pyrograms. On the basis of these peak inte nsities, the compositions and number average molecular weights were ac curately estimated without using any reference polymer, even for the l ight stabilized PCs which are not amenable to NMR analysis. (C) 1997 E lsevier Science B.V.