A comparative study of the composition of anthracene oil polymerized by different treatments

An industrial anthracene oil (AO) was polymerized by thermal treatment with the aid of AlCl3, sulphur and air. The composition of the reaction product s was investigated by size exclusion chromatography (SEC) and synchronous U V-fluorescence spectroscopy. The SEC profiles show significant differences in the composition of the polymerized products. This suggests that the reac tivity of the AO components and the mechanisms of polymerization are differ ent. With sulphur and air, the polymerization involves a low number of AO c omponents, which selectively react to form intermediate and large polymers. AlCl3 causes a more extensive polymerization, giving rise to a product in which the fraction of oligomers of intermediate size (500-700 u) is predomi nant. Synchronous UV-fluoreseence spectroscopy corroborates and supports th e SEC results. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.