Effect of some additives on degradation of poly (vinyl chloride- co- vinyl

The thermal decomposition of 86 % vinyl chloride 14 % vinyl acetate copolymer wasstudied by the conductometry technique in the presence of nitrogen. The kinetics of stability andthermal degradation of vinyl chloride- co- vinyl acetate (PVC- co- PVAc) copolymer withcopper, copper oxide and tricalcium dicitrate (st) were investigated at various temperatures (150-180 oC ) in solution. The rate coefficients for the degradation of the copolymer were determined.The energies of activation, determined from the temperature dependence of the rate coefficientsfor copolymer alone was 63.536 kJ mol-1 and in the presence of copper, copper oxide andtricalcium dicitrate were 44.224, 55.594 and 110.332 KJ mol-1, respectively. The results showthat thermal stability was increased in the presence of tricalcium dicitrate, but its thermalstability was decreased in the presence of copper and copper oxide.