Kinetics and thermal degradation study of optically active and thermally stable aromatic polyamides with flame-retardancy properties

Abstract

Aromatic diacid monomer containing L phenylalaninetetrabromophthalimide group was synthesized in three steps in high yield and purity. Several, highly soluble and optically active aromatic polyamides (PA)s with flame-retardancy properties were prepared from this diacid monomer and different aromatic diamines under microwave irradiation as well as conventional heating. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential thermogravimetry (DTG) for these PAs have been extensively used for thermal decomposition study in order to determine the actual reaction mechanism, half-life time and lifetime of the decomposition process. Non-isothermal integral methods, differential method and Criado method were utilized to obtain the kinetic parameters (E, AS, AG, AH and reaction mechanism) from TGA and DTG curves. All of the synthesized compounds and some representative PAs were characterized by 1H NMR, FT/IR, elemental analysis and specific rotation techniques. ©2009 The Society of Polymer Science.