Ring-Opening Copolymerization of Mixed Cyclic Monomers: A Facile, Versatile and Structure-Controllable Approach to Preparing Poly(methylphenylsiloxane) with Enhanced Thermal Stability

Restricted by their molecular structure defects, poly(methylphenylsiloxanes) usually exhibit a relatively low thermal stability, thus limiting their application in high-temperature areas. In this paper, we introduce a cost-effective synthesis method to prepare poly(methylphenylsiloxanes) (PPMS-M) with methyl phenyl mixed cyclic monomers as raw materials. The molecular structure characterization shows that PPMS-M contain abundant phenyl groups, and the phenylsiloxane units are evenly distributed among methylsiloxane segments. The thermal degradation kinetics are systematically studied with the Flynn-Wall-Ozawa method. It shows that PPMS-M exhibits much higher degradation activation energy than ordinary poly(methylphenylsiloxanes) (PPMS-PD) does, which is prepared by 2,4,6-trimethy1-2,4,6-triphenylcydotrisiloxane (P-3) and octamethylcydotetrasiloxane (D-4). The thennogravimetry Fourier transform infrared characterization shows that the degradation process of the phenyl group in PPMS-M occurs at temperatures of 100-200 degrees C higher than those for PPMS-PD. PPMS-M exhibits good thermal stability and a low glass transition temperature. Our method would be applied to cost-effective synthesis of other high-performance functional polysiloxanes.