Thermochimica Acta, Vol.586, 45-51, 2014
The influence of bisphenol AF unit on thermal behavior of thermotropic liquid crystal copolyesters
In this study, a series of thermotropic liquid crystal copolyesters P-BPAFx modified with 2.5-10 mol% of bisphenol AF (BPAF) and terephthalic acid (TA) were synthesized via melt polymerization. The structure and properties of P-BPAFx were characterized by various measurements. The melting temperature decreased from 260 to 220 degrees C and glass transition temperature increased from 70 to 118 degrees C after introduction of BPAF and TA units, showing P-BPAFx can easily be processed in a lower temperature and have a more broad application temperature. The thermal degradation behavior was evaluated by SEM, FTIR and thermogravimetric analysis (TG). The activation energy was obtained from Kissinger and Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose (KAS) methods, and was investigated comparatively with P-HBA70. It was found that the addition of 2.5 mol% BPAF units improve thermal stability, and much higher char yield was observed for those copolyesters containing BPAF unit. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords:Fluorinated copolyester;Liquid crystalline copolyester;Bisphenol AF (BPAF);Thermal property;Thermal degradation kinetics