Enhancing the thermal stability of poly(methyl methacrylate) by removing the chains with weak links in a continuous polymerization

A novel method is proposed to produce PMMA with excellent thermal stability by a continuous process composed of polymerization and devolatilization steps. It is based on the fact that free radical polymerized PMMA is a mixture of polymer chains with different structure, a small fraction of which, containing head-to-head linkages or unsaturated ends, is less thermally stable and the major portion without those defect structures which is much more stable. Our idea is selectively remove the unstable chains from this mixture by pre-decomposing them at suitable temperatures in a continuous process, leaving the stable portion as the final PMMA product. The results showed that during the continuous process, the chains with head-to-head linkages were eliminated by conducting the polymerization at 155 degrees C, and then the chains with unsaturated ends were removed by devolatilization at 300 degrees C. The final PMMA was thermally stable up to 313 degrees C. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.