Degradation and Stabilization of Poly(propylene carbonate)

Thermal and weathering degradation of poly(propylene carbonate)

“…Around 56% of the polymer is transformed to cyclic carbonate by the thermal treatment. Similar facile degradation of PPC to cyclic carbonate in the presence of catalyst residue was also reported for polymer obtained with a zinc catalyst [16]. Depolymerization to cyclic carbonate occurred at room temperature when zinc complex was purposely added to PPC [22].…”

“…These observations indicate that the main degradation process of pure PPC not containing catalyst residue is not a back-biting described in equation (3). In previous reports, the most facile decomposition process was an unzipping process by back-biting process forming many cyclic carbonate [15,16,19,20]. The disagreement between the previous reports and this study may be attributed to a complete removal of catalyst residue in the polymer samples employed in this study.…”

“…Inoue reported that PPC easily decomposed to cyclic carbonate at temperatures of only about 180 C [15]. It was also reported that the carbonate linkage was susceptible to a random chain scission with formation of carbon dioxide even storage at an ambient condition [16]. These reports have cast a gloomy shadow on this attractive polymer.…”

“…These reports have cast a gloomy shadow on this attractive polymer. However, in some cases, polymer decomposition are sensitively influenced either by the presence of some impurities such as catalyst residue or by the molecular weight [16]. Having a high molecular-weight PPC not containing any catalyst residue, we reinvestigated thermal and weathering stability of PPC.…”

Thermal decomposition studies of highly alternating CO2- cyclohexene oxide copolymer

“…It is well known that poly(ethylene carbonate) (PEC) has good bio-compatibility and biodegradability and can be used as surgery seam [8][9][10]. Poly(propylene carbonate) (PPC) is being used in packaging plastic [11,12], polyurethane synthesis [13], ceramic adhesives [14] etc. However, due to its low glass transition temperature (T g , 40 o C), modulus and tensile strength, its more extensive application was limited.…”