Differential scanning calorimetry was used to investigate the degradation of acrylonitrile-acrylamide copolymers in air. The apparent activation energy of degradation of the copolymers was calculated with the Kissinger method. The effects of the copolymerization conditions on the apparent activation energy of the copolymers were studied. Increasing the dimethylformamide concentration in the solvent mixture led to a rapid increase in the apparent activation energy of degradation of the acrylonitrile-acryl-amide copolymers. The apparent activation energy decreased quickly as the comonomer acrylamide concentration increased, and this change became less prominent as the acrylamide/acrylonitrile weight ratio increased beyond 5/95. The apparent activation energy increased as the copolymerization temperature increased. (c) 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.