Coumarin-based random copolymer: Kinetics of thermal decomposition, thermal properties, and chemical reactivity with DFT quantum chemical calculations

Abstract

In this article, coumarin-based random copolymer which can be utilized for atom transfer radical polymerization was investigated both theoretically and experimentally. The thermal degradation mechanism and the activation energies (Ea) were obtained by means of the Coats–Redfern (CR), Tang, and Flynn–Wall–Ozawa (FWO) methods. The thermal degradation reaction mechanism for random copolymer obeyed the phase boundary model (contracting volume, R3) of solid-state mechanism. The thermodynamic properties in the range from 100 K to 500 K have been obtained. The calculated HOMO–LUMO energy gap and electronic properties, such as chemical hardness (η), electron affinity (A), chemical potential (μ0), global softness (ζ), electronegativity (χ), global electrophilicity (ω), and dipole moment (μ), were investigated and discussed. The molecular electrostatic potential analysis of the random copolymer was also computed. © 2017, © The Author(s) 2017.