Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

The products from the thermal and thermal-oxidative decomposition of PVC from 300 to 500C have been studied by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. Approximately seventy-five products have been detected up to naphthalene by gas chromatography and shown to consist essentially of aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons. Weight loss experiments and time resolved chromatography indicate that these products are generated mainly during dehydrochlorination. The products are modified slightly by the presence of oxygen but no oxygenated organic materials have been detected. The products, apart from carbon monoxide, are shown to have liittle toxicity in relation to the hydrogen chloride. Difficulties encountered with the analysis of phosgene are recorded and some preliminary results from a series of specific phosgene experiments are given.