Comparative study of various methods for thermal degradation of poly[3-dimethyl(methacryloyloxyethyl) ammonium propanesulfonate]

The comparative study of thermal degradation for poly[3-dimethyl(methacryloyloxyethyl)ammonium propanesulfonate] [poly(DMAPS)] was studied by various methods under different conditions. The reaction order, the activation energy, and the preexponential factor were evaluated from thermal gravimetric curves. The activation energy and the preexponential factor increase with increasing heating rate in a nitrogen atmosphere and decrease with increasing heating rate in air. The activation energy is higher in an air atmosphere at lower heating rates (5, 10, 20°C/min), for any of the methods used.