Characterization of fluoroelastomers by various analytical techniques including pyrolysis gas chromatography/mass spectrometry

Fluorocarbon elastomers are specified for a number of applications where excellent high temperature and chemical resistance is required. To ensure that a fluoroelastomer with the required properties for a particular application is used, characterization techniques that allow the positive identification of the elastomer are required. In this paper the characterization of four fluoroelastomer formulations - a vinylidene fluoride/hexafluoropropene (VDF/HFP) dipolymer, a vinylidene fluoride/hexafluoropropene/tetrafluoroethylene terpolymer, and two vinylidene fluoride/perfluoro(methyl vinyl ether)/tetrafluoroethylene (VDF/PMVE/TFE) tetrarpolymers - is described. The characterization techniques included pyrolysis gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (py-GC/MS), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrometry, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Py-GC/MS was the only characterization technique that could identify the four formulations unambiguously. The positive identification was based on differences in the pyrolytic degradation products of the flouroelastomer formulations. Crown Copyright (C) 2014 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.