## 3 Results
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Copolymer** & \(T_{5\%}\) (\({}^{\circ}\)C) & \(T_{20\%}\) (\({}^{\circ}\)C) & \(T_{50\%}\) (\({}^{\circ}\)C) & \(T_{max1}\) (\({}^{\circ}\)C) & \(T_{max2}\) (\({}^{\circ}\)C) & **Residual Mass (\%)** \\ \hline DVB-_co_-ST & 302 & 336 & 374 & 364 & 578 & 1.5 \\ DVB-_co_-NVP & 346 & 389 & 423 & 414 & 640 & 0.5 \\ DVB-_co_-EGDMA & 321 & 354 & 397 & 407 & 650 & 1.0 \\ DVB-_co_-BMB & 327 & 377 & 418 & 415 & 660 & 8.7 \\ DVB-_co_-BMPS & 324 & 376 & 416 & 421 & 14.0 \\ DVB-_co_-BMPM & 339 & 373 & 413 & 396 & 615 & 0.0 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 4: TG and DTG data of the copolymeric microspheres obtained in helium atmosphere. Figure 5: TG, DTG and Gram–Schmidt curves of copolymers obtained under helium atmosphere. (**a**); DVB-co-ST, DVB-co-NVP and DVB-co-EGDMA; (**b**) DVB-co-BMB, DVB-co-BMPS and DVB-co-BMPM. Figure 6: FTIR spectra of volatile products evolved during the thermal decomposition of DVB-co-EGDMA copolymer: 3D (**left**) and extracted at the maxima of decomposition (**right**). The DVB-_co_-BMPS copolymer, apart from methacrylate groups, also contained the diphenyl sulfone unit. As a consequence, additional bands pointing to the creation of sulfur dioxide associated with stretching vibrations at 1375-1340 cm\({}^{-1}\) were detected in the FTIR spectra, which is clearly visible in Figure 7. In turn, the spectra received for DVB-_co_-ST and DVB-_co_-NVP copolymers revealed bands connected with the evolution of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and water as well unsaturated products: for example, for DVB-_co_-NVP (Figure 7). In the case of all the studied polymers, random chain scission took place as well. It should also be noted that in the first step, the decomposition of cross-linked parts of copolymers also started. Nevertheless, the second step, which had a maximum at 539-650 \({}^{\circ}\)C, was mostly attributable to the degradation of the highly cross-linked units (primary nuclei) created during very early phase separation in the polymerization reaction. The detected volatile decomposition products were carbon dioxide and water (see FTIR spectra received for DVB-_co_-EGDMA in Figure 6). Furthermore, the emission maxima of the detected gases on the Gram-Schmidt plots were in relatively good accordance with the maxima on the DTG curves (Figure 5). Regarding oxidative conditions, one can say that the studied copolymers exhibited a somewhat worse thermal stability (\(T_{5\%}\): 294-320 \({}^{\circ}\)C and \(T_{20\%}\): 316-354 \({}^{\circ}\)C) compared to the inert ones (Table 5). Their degradation occurred in two partially superimposed steps with maxima at 328-357 \({}^{\circ}\)C and 444-500 \({}^{\circ}\)C as shown in Figure 8. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline
**Copolymer** & \(T_{5\%}\) (\({}^{\circ}\)C) & \(T_{20\%}\) (\({}^{\circ}\)C) & \(T_{50\%}\) (\({}^{\circ}\)C) & \(T_{max1}\) (\({}^{\circ}\)C) & \(T_{max2}\) (\({}^{\circ}\)C) & **Residual Mass (\%)** \\ \hline DVB-_co_-ST & 294 & 316 & 336 & 328 & 458 & 5.0 \\ DVB-_co_-NVP & 320 & 354 & 466 & 343 & 491 & 5.5 \\ DVB-_co_-EGDMA & 295 & 321 & 350 & 331 & 483 & 4.5 \\ DVB-_co_-BMB & 314 & 344 & 395 & 357 & 500 & 4.2 \\ DVB-_co_-BMPS & 313 & 329 & 426 & 330 & 444 & 3.7 \\ DVB-_co_-BMMM & 317 & 340 & 446 & 340 & 478 & 6.0 \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 5: TG and DTG data of the copolymeric microspheres obtained in synthetic air atmosphere. Figure 7: FTIR spectra of volatile products evolved during the thermal decomposition of DVB-_co_-BMPS and DVB-_co_-NVP copolymers collected at the maxima of decomposition in helium atmosphere. (**a**) DVB-_co_-BMPS; (**b**) DVB-_co_-NVP. During the decomposition of all the copolymers in synthetic air, practically the same types of volatile substances as in helium atmosphere were released in both the first and second steps. The difference is that carbon monoxide was also detected in the second (see FTIR spectra for DVB-\(co\)-EGDMA copolymer in Figure 6).