Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Dennis W. Smith Jr.

Committee Member

Dongmao Zhang

Committee Member

Joseph P. Emerson

Committee Member

Dennis W. Smith Jr.

Date of Degree

8-6-2021

Original embargo terms

Worldwide

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Chemistry

Degree Name

Master of Science

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of Chemistry

Abstract

Fluorinated polymers of substantial high performance such as perfluorocyclobutyl (PFCB) and fluorinated aryl vinyl ether (FAVE) polymers can readily be synthesized by thermal [2+2] cyclopolymerization as a melt or by classical polycondensation. These fluoropolymers naturally possess high thermal and chemical resistance, low conductivity properties, and other mechanical properties. In this work, a method using 0th order kinetics is proposed and thermal degradation studies were conducted on six different aromatic ether-based polymers to gauge trends in activation energy barrier and differences in thermal stability by 0th order degradation kinetics. The activation barrier (E_a) obtained can give accurate insight into the stability of the polymer based only on structure for external applications. Activation energies ranging from 17 to 41 kcal/mol were obtained for the various polymers. Overall, this study provides an established method using TGA for thermal stability studies through 0th order kinetics that can be potentially used for future lab applications.

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