Thermal Degradation Behavior of an ABS Resin and Related Copolymers

摘要

For the development of an effective procedure for recycling of ABS resins, which are terpolymers of acrylonitrile (AN), butadiene (Bu) and styrene (St), and heve been classified into two groups as graft copolymers and blends of copolymers, it is desired to reveal the thermal degradation mechanism of ABS resins and also related vinyl polymers and copolymers. In this paper, thermal degradation behavior of an ABS resin and also three copolymers of the monomers, poly(St―co―AN)s (styrene resins with high impact strength), poly(St―co―Bu) (SB rubber) and poly(AN―co―Bu) (NB rubber) were investigated by TG/DTA-FTIR following to previous studies. Activation energies (ΔE_a) for thermal degradation of an ABS resin and the copolymers estimated by Ozawa's method and the evaporated thermal degradation products were compared with each other. The effects of chemically active functional groups ―C≡N, ―CH=CH_2 and ―CH=CH― on the thermal degradation behavior in TG measurement with various heating rates were discussed.