Melt transesterification of bisphenol acetophenone-polycarbonate: A kinetic study

This article deals with the development of kinetic parameters for bisphenol acetophenone–polycarbonate made by melt transesterification with diphenyl carbonate. The understanding of the influence of borosilicate glass of the reactor construction materials on the accuracy of the kinetic data is reported. During the development of analytical methods, the use of high performance liquid chromatography‐mass spectrometry (HPLC‐MS) was proven to be a valid tool to determine the oligomers existing in the reaction mixture. Accurate kinetics parameters were obtained by elimination of the interference of the construction materials. We provide the rate expressions, kinetic parameters [forward reaction frequency factor = 2.456 × 1013 ± 0.01 (cm3/mol)2/min, forward reaction activation energy = 45.69 ± 0.2 kJ/mol, reverse reaction frequency factor = 2.068 × 1014 ± 0.01 (cm3/mol)2/min, and reverse reaction activation energy = 56.37 ± 0.1 kJ/mol], and equilibrium constants at various temperatures. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 103: 4072–4079, 2007