Kinetics of thermal degradation of poly(methyl methacrylate) studied with the assistance of the fractional conversion at the maximum reaction rate

One-stage degradation process was observed for a poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) sample. The fractional conversion alpha(max) at the maximum reaction rate is thus applied to determine reaction order of the thermal degradation. It is found that the PMMA degraded in the first order kinetics with weight loss. This is consistent with the fact that PMMA thermally degrades into its monomer. Activation energy was calculated. Compensation effect of the Arrhenius parameters is also found. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.