With a combination of information from TG/IR and GC/IR measurements of the trapped gases, characterization of complex polymer decompositions can be made. In this paper, the thermally induced breakdown of ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) copolymers was studied. Results show that EVA undergoes a two-step decomposition: an acetate pyrolysis of the copolymer leaving a polyunsaturated linear hydrocarbon, followed by the breakdown of the hydrocarbon backbone to produce a large number of straight-chain hydrocarbon products.
