Polyethylene oxide and atactic and isotactic polypropylene oxides were pyrolyzed in a vacuum in the temperature range 265 to 363°C. One phase of the investigation consisted in fractionating the products of degradation and analyzing the fractions qualitatively and quantitatively. Another phase consisted in measuring rates of degradation and calculating from these rates the activation energies. As compared with the corresponding non‐oxide polymers, polyethylene and polypropylene, the oxide polymers are less stable thermally, yield larger amounts of monomeric fragments, and have lower activation energies.
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