Solid state thermal degradation behaviour of graft copolymers of carboxymethyl cellulose with vinyl monomers

The graft copolymer of sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) with acrylamide (ACM), dimethylacrylamide (DMA), N-vinyl pyrrolidone (NVP), 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propane sulphonic acid (AMPS) and vinyl caprolactum (VCL) were synthesized in nitrogen atmosphere by employing redox initiators. The integral procedural decomposition temperature (IPDT) of CMC and its graft copolymer with ACM, DMA, AMPS, NVP and VCL have been found to be 274°C, 375°C, 421°C, 404°C, 466°C and 331°C, respectively. The higher value of IPDT showed more thermal stability. Among all five graft copolymers, the graft copolymer of CMC with NVP is thermally more stable and VCL grafted copolymer was found least thermally stable. The higher char yield and final decomposition temperature (FDT) were obtained in the case of more thermally stable graft copolymer. All five graft copolymers have shown more than one Tmax, which suggests that degradations were multistep process.