Thermal Stability and Degradation Mechanism for Two Main-Chain Liquid Crystal Polyesters a TG-MS Study

The thermal stabilities of two thermotropic liquid crystal polyesters were analysed by means of thermogravimetric analysis (TG), as a function of the chemical structure of the aliphatic spacer between the aromatic-triad mesogenic units. TG was combined with mass spectrometry to confirm that the degradation mechanism previously observed in a Fourier transform infrared study of the degrading polymers follows a β-cis-elimination process.