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Ab initio and experimental study on thermally degradable polycarbonates: the effect of substituents on the reaction rates.

Thermal elimination reactions on polycarbonates are investigated from both theoretical and experimental points of view, to obtain insight into the microscopic aspects that influence the reaction mechanism and rates. In particular, attention is focused on the influence of the type of substituents in the polymer chain on the reaction rates. Ab initio density functional theory calculations are performed on a series of model compound systems for the polycarbonates under study, in particular carbonates differing by the groups attached at the alpha and beta carbon atoms. Reactants, products, and transition states are optimized at the B3LYP/6-311g level of theory. The structures of the activated complex give insight into the mechanistic details of this type of E(i) elimination reactions. The C(alpha)-O bond dissociates before the C(beta)-H bond, developing some carbocation character in the transition state on the C(alpha) atom. The kinematics of the thermal decomposition reactions have been studied by means of transition state theory by construction of the microscopic partition functions. It turns out that the rates of the E(i) elimination reactions are increased by the presence of those substituents on the C(alpha) and C(beta) carbon atoms which are stabilizing the carbocation character in the transition state. In a second part, degradation temperatures have been experimentally measured for some polycarbonates through thermogravimetric analysis. It is investigated whether the relative rates of the model compound carbonate systems are representative of the behavior of the thermal degradation temperatures in polycarbonates. The study as presented here proves that ab initio calculations on small model systems, which are representative for the active area of the degradation process in polycarbonates, can provide insight into the principal ingredients that govern the reaction rates.