Comparative Thermogravimetric Studies of Poly(ether-ketone/sulfone) Imides and Their Parent Polymers: I. Poly(ether-ketone/sulfone) ethylimide

Thermogravimetry (TG) was employed to study the thermal degradation kinetics of poly(etherketone/sulfone)ethylimide (PEK-IE and PES-IE). The corresponding decomposition activation energies and reaction orders were obtained and the comparison was made with their parent polymerspoly(ether-ketone/sulfone) with Cardo group (PEK-C and PES-C). The results show that the degradation activation energies of PEK-IE and PES-IE were lower than that of PEK-C and PES-C; and two stages of the degradation process were found for all the four polymers. For PEK-IE and PES-IE, the activation energies in the first decomposition stage are much lower than that in the second stage and the two stages can be taken as slow induction and fast degradation, whereas for PEK-C and PES-C the activation energies in the first decomposition stage are larger than that in the second stage, and the two stages can both be taken as two fast degradation stages. The decomposition mechanism of the two stages was also speculated.