ISSN 1017-2548(Print)
ISSN 2234-8530(Online)
Volume 19, Number 5
JKCSEZ 19(5)
October 20, 1975 

Polystyrene and polystyrene blended with SBR were subjected to the mechanical degradation by roll mastication. The results obtained are as follows. 1. For the polystyrene which is blended with SBR, the overall shape of the molecular weight distribution curve moves from the higher molecular weight portion to the lower molecular weight portion, becomes narrower in breadth, and its peak becomes higher as the degradation proceeds. The final molecular weight distribution exhibits a relative uniformity. This is due to the fact that only the polymer molecules with the high molecular weight consisted in original polystyrene are degraded mechanically and produced the polymer molecules with the low molecular weight. 2. The scission number of polystyrene chains increases with mastication time, and the number of degraded polymer chains produced when the polymer is masticated for 100 minutes at 140, 150 and 160℃ are 2.36×1020, 1.76×1020 and 1.52×1020, respectively. 3. The rate of the degradation of polystyrene decreases with the mastication temperature. The activation energy is found to have the negative value, -8.7 kcal/mole. Therefore it is indicated that the mechanical degradation is a chemical process of which the activation energy is supplied mechanically.