Compositional determination of 2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide and styreen hompolymer blends by infrared spectrometry and pyrolysis gas chromatography

Compositional analysis of 2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide (PPO) and styrene homopolymer blends was accomplished using infrared spectrometry and pyrolysis gas chromatography. In infrared measurements the 1030/700 cm^?1 absorption ratio provides percent PPO in the blends within ±3% of the actual value but with a σ% of ±10. In pyrolysis GC measurements, four peaks resulting from the fragmentation of the PPO molecule have been investigated for quantitation. One of these peaks provides results with ±2% of the PPO present with a σ% of 7 when the percent PPO in the blend is above 20.