An XPS investigation of thermal degradation and charring in combustion of PVC and PVC/Cu2O/MoO3 -: the synergy between MoO3 and Cu2O in PVC

In addition to the NBS smoke box and Goodrich smoke-char tester the present paper shows that the Cone Calorimeter due to its multifunctional capability is one of the effective facilities for the characterization of the smoke-reducing synergism between MoO3 and Cu2O for rigid PVC. In combination with XPS techniques further information about the charring requisite to the better understanding of charring and smoke emission has been obtained. The current XPS data were of vital importance in the assessment of the extent of crosslinking of PVC and systems of PVC/transition metals on heating. It was found that besides char residue percentage the rate of crosslinking (ROC) derived from Cls spectra at the temperature of LTGRL is a parameter qualified to be a measure for the rate of charring in polymeric matrices. The data acquired from XPS/CONE have been harnessed to seek the smoke-reducing synergy between MoO3 and Cu2O for rigid PVC. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.