Thermal degradation behaviors of some branched and linear polysiloxanes

The thermal degradation behaviors of some branched and linear polysiloxanes were studied by thermogravimetric (TG) analysis and infrared (IR) spectroscopy, and the effect of phenyl content on the thermal stability of the tested branched polysiloxanes was investigated. The branched polysiloxanes with phenyl obtain higher thermal stability at lower temperature. The degradation residues of the examined branched polysiloxanes at 800 °C are rather high, 65.1-77.6% in N2 and 40.5-66.5% in air, respectively. However, the amount of solid residue increases with decrease in phenyl content in both N2 and air atmospheres. It was found that the thermal stability of the branched polysiloxanes is higher than that of the linear one, which indicated that the branched structure benefits the formation of a crosslink in the solid residue.