• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.386-393
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• 1975

Polystyrene and polystyrene blended with SBR were subjected to the mechanical degradation by roll mastication. The results obtained are as follows. 1. For the polystyrene which is blended with SBR, the overall shape of the molecular weight distribution curve moves from the higher molecular weight portion to the lower molecular weight portion, becomes narrower in breadth, and its peak becomes higher as the degradation proceeds. The final molecular weight distribution exhibits a relative uniformity. This is due to the fact that only the polymer molecules with the high molecular weight consisted in original polystyrene are degraded mechanically and produced the polymer molecules with the low molecular weight. 2. The scission number of polystyrene chains increases with mastication time, and the number of degraded polymer chains produced when the polymer is masticated for 100 minutes at 140, 150 and $160^{\circ}C$ are $2.36{\times}10^{20},\;1.76{\times}10^{20}\;and\;1.52{\times}10^{20}$, respectively. 3. The rate of the degradation of polystyrene decreases with the mastication temperature. The activation energy is found to have the negative value, -8.7 kcal/mole. Therefore it is indicated that the mechanical degradation is a chemical process of which the activation energy is supplied mechanically.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.37-42
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• 2004

ECF and TCF bleaching methods are favored in bleaching plants over the world due to the increasing environment constraints. However, interaction of main stages(D and O stage) in ECF bleaching have not been understood completely yet. The degradation of holocellulose as a carbohydrate model compound was investigated by SEC(size exclusive chromatography) to estimate the change of its molecular weight distribution after O and D stage combination treatment. The molecular weight distribution of holocellulose was observed in two divisions(higher and lower molecular portions). It was also shown that DO sequence was more effective than OD, and DOD or ODO was more effective than DO. D stage had a little effect on the degradation of holocellulose, while the degradation of holocellulose increased as the time of the first O stage increased.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.85-90
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• 2002

Poly (ethylene oxide)/polylatide/poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO/PL/PEO) tri-block copolymers, which each block is connected by ester bond, were synthesized by coupling reaction of PL with PEO in the presence of pyridine. PL/PEO/PL tri-block copolymer was synthesized by ring opening polymerization of L-lactide initiated by PEO in the presence of stannous octoate. Degradation behavior of the copolymers was investigated in a pH 7.4 phosphate buffer saline (PBS) at 37$\pm$1 $^{\circ}C$. Gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and $^1$H-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) were used to monitor the change of mass loss, molecular weight and composition of copolymers. In hydrolytic degradation, the PEO/PL/PEO tri-block copolymer with high PEO contents affected the increase of its mass loss, and resulted in the decrease of its molecular weight as well as PEO composition. However, when PL/PEO/PL and PEO/PL/PEO tri-block copolymers had similar PEO contents, PEO/PL/PEO decreased faster in molecular weight and PEO composition than PL/PEO/PL.

• Proceedings of the PSK Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.416.1-416.1
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• 2002

Biodegradable PLGA microspheres(MS) have been widely studied for delivering antigens because PLGA has the characteristics of various degradation rate. In general. since MS have shown potential for single-dose vaccines. the degradation rate of PLGA is determined by their molecular weight. polymer composition, etc. We studied the influences of molecular weight of PLGA. polymer composition and surfactant on in vitro release and in vivo effects. (omitted)

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.16 no.11
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• pp.676-680
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• 2006

The biodegradable $\beta$-tricalcium phosphate ($\beta$-TCP)/poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) composites were synthesized by in situ polymerization with microwave energy. The degradation behavior of $\beta$-TCP/PLGA composite was investigated by soaking in simulated body fluid (SBF) for 4 weeks. The molecular weight of the $\beta$-TCP/PLGA composites decreased with soaking time until week 2, whereas the loss rate of molecular weight reduced after week 2. The incubation time was needed for the degradation of the $\beta$-TCP, indicating that the $\beta$-TCP should be detached from the PLGA matrix and then degraded into SBF solution. The studies of mass loss of the composites with the soaking time revealed that the degradation behavior of PLGA would be processed with the transformation from the polymer to the oligomer followed by the degradation. Morphological changes, whisker-like, due to transformation and degradation of polymer in the composites were observed after week 2. On the basis of the results, it found that the degradation behavior of $\beta$-TCP/PLGA composites was influenced by the $\beta$-TCP content in the composites and the degradation rate of the composites could be controlled by the initial molecular weight of PLGA in the composites.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.125-133
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• 1988

The thermal degradation of polymethyl methacrylate(PMMA) blend namely polymethyl methacrylate-polycarbonate(PMMA-PC) blend and polymethyl methacrylate-polystyrene(PMMA-PS) blend were carried out by isothermal method under air at several heating temperature from 220 to $270^{\circ}C$. Molecular weight changes during the thermal decomposition were monitored by means of the viscosity average molecular weight($\bar{M}v$). The viscosity average molecular weight was determined by Gel Permeation Chromatography(GPC). The dominant process in the degradation of PMMA-PC and PMMA-PS blend were main chain scission randomly due to weak links that may be distributed along the polymer backbone and the initial rate which the bonds are broken is not sustained. The infra-red spectra of degraded PMMA-PS blend show that the presence of aromatic ketone band at $1685cm^{-1}$. However, the infra-red spectra of degraded PMMA-PC blend show that the presence of hydroperoxide band at $3450cm^{-1}$. Thus indicating that the weak links are attacked by oxygen from the air and produce hydroperoxide or ketone. The activation energies of PMMA-PC blend and PMMA-PS blend were 18.2 and 17.9 Kcal/mol, respectively.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.177-183
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• 2006

The hydrolytic kinetics of biodegradable poly(l-lactide) (PLLA) have been studied by using two model systems, solution-grown single crystal (SC) and Langmuir monolayer techniques, for elucidating the mechanism for both alkaline and enzymatic degradations. The present study investigated the parameters such as degradation medium and time. The Langmuir mono layers of PLLA showed faster rates of hydrolysis when they were exposed to a basic subphase rather than they did when exposed to neutral subphase. Both degradation mediums had moderate concentrations to show a maximized activity, depending on their sizes. An alkaline degradation of SCs of PLLA showed the decrease of molecular weight of the remained crystals due to the erosion of chain-folding surface. However, the enzymatic degradation of SCs of PLLA occurred in the crystal edges thus the molecular weight of remained crystals was not changed. This behavior might be attributed to the size of enzymes which is much larger than that of alkaline ions; that is, the enzymes need larger contact area with monolayers to be activated.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.1139-1144
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• 2004

We studied a extraction and degradation of alginate from seaweed-stems using microorganism DS-02. DS-02 has a maximum growth rate at $30^{\circ}C$ and the enzyme has a maximum activity of alginate extraction at $35^{\circ}C.$ The yield of alginate extraction using DS-02 is about $16.0{\%}$ for 3.0 hour and molecular weight of the alginate decreased to about 1/8 of initial value after 24 hour extraction. Alginate extraction method by DS-02, compared with general alkali-extraction method, has an advantage of decreasing the molecular weight of alginate during extraction.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.69-74
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• 2000

Applicability of Thermal field flow fractionation (ThFFF) was investigated for the analysis of masticated natural rubber (NR) adhesives produced bya hot melt mastication process. An optimum ThFFF condition for NR analysis was found by using tetrahydrofuran (THF) as a solvent/carrier and a field-programming. Low flowrate (0.3 mL/min) was used to avoid stopping the flow for the sample relaxation. Measured molecular weight distribution was used to monitor degradation of rubber during the mastication process. Rubber samples collected at three different stages of the mastication process and were analyzed by ThFFF. It was found that in an anaerobic process rubber degradation occurs at the resin-mixing (compounding) zone as well as in the initial break-down zone, while in an aerobic process most of degradation occurs at the initial breakdown zone. It was also found that E-beam radiation on NR causes a slight increase in the NR molecular weight due to the formation of a branched structure.

• Proceedings of the Polymer Society of Korea Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.206-206
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• 2006

Polymer induced turbulent drag reduction achieved by adding minute amounts of high molecular weight DNAs in aqueous solution was investigated using a rotating disk apparatus. The DNAs in this study include ${\lambda}-DNA$ and calf-thymus (CT) DNA. By putting emphasis on effect of CT-DNA concentration, its DR characteristics were compared with that of ${\lambda}-DNA$ possessing monodisperse molecular weight characteristics based on both DR efficiency and a mechanical degradation under turbulence. The DNA chains having much higher molecular size than that of ${\lambda}-DNA$ are observed to be more susceptible to mechanical degradation in a turbulent flow. This result was verified via electrophoresis. Furthermore, the coil to globule phase transition of DNA was also investigated under a turbulent flow.