Abstract—Redox polymerization of acrylonitrile (AN) with methyl acrylate and fumaronitrile as comonomer and termonomer respectively, were carried out by using sodium bisulfite (SBS) and potassium persulphate (KPS) as initiator at 40°C. The effect of methyl acrylate (MA) and fumaronitrile (FN) on the glass transition temperature (Tg) and stabilization temperature has been studied by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). The degradation behavior and char yield were obtained by Thermogravimetric Analysis. The Tg of poly(AN/MA) copolymers were found to be lower (~70°C) as compared to polyacrylonitrile (PAN) (210°C). However, by incorporating MA into PAN system, the char yield reduced significantly.It was found that FN reduced the initial cyclization temperature of poly(AN/MA/FN) terpolymer to ~230°C as compared to poly(AN/MA) copolymer (~260°C). In addition, FN reduced the heat liberation per unit time during the stabilization process that consequently reduced the emission of volatile group during this process. Thereby, the char yield of poly(AN/MA/FN) 90/4/6 terpolymer is higher at 51% as compared to poly(AN/MA) 90/10 copolymer (45%).
Index Terms—Redox method, synthesis, thermal stability, polyacrylonitrile, terpolymer
Siti Nurul Ain Md. Jamil is with the Universiti Putra Malaysia (e-mail:nurul_ainjamil@yahoo.com).
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Cite: Siti Nurul Ain Md. Jamil, Rusli Daik, and Ishak Ahmad, "Redox Synthesis and Thermal Behaviorof Acrylonitrile-Methyl Acrylate-Fumaronitrile Terpolymer as Precursor for Carbon Fiber," International Journal of Chemical Engineering and Applications vol. 3, no. 6, pp. 416-420, 2012.
