Volatile Products Formed by Thermal Decomposition of Cotton Cellulose Graft-copolymerized with Vinyl Phosphonate Oligomers and/or N-Methylolacrylamide

Cotton cellulose samples graft-copolymerized with vinyl phosphonate oligomers (FYR) and/or N-methylolacrylamide (NMA) were subjected to pyrolysis gas chromatography and pyrolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry with a Curie point pyrolyzer at 590°C for 4 seconds for pyrolysis and with a packed column of Porapak Q for chromatographic separation. Thirty eight volatile pyrolysis products were identified which included previously unreported butadiene and ethylene glycol as pyrolysis products of cellulose. Characteristic pyrolysis products from all the phosphorus-containing samples include 3-penten-1-yne and those from all the nitrogen-containing samples were hydrogen cyanide, acetonitrile, and acrylonitrile. Other products formed from the cellulose samples treated only with NMA included acrylamide, propionamide, and 3-methylsuccinimide. The succinimide was found only from the samples with nitrogen contents higher than 1.0wt/wt%.