## 3 Results and Discussion
### Thermal Properties of the Studied Polymers  
TGA allows us to evaluate thermal stability of the synthesized polymers. The analyses performed under helium atmosphere enable us to study the thermal degradation process and can be very useful when polymers are applied in an elevated temperature (e.g., gas chromatography, thermal desorption). The analyses carried out in a synthetic air atmosphere let us investigate the thermal behavior of the materials under oxidizing conditions, when thermal decomposition is accompanied by a reaction with oxygen. Figure 3 presents the TGA curves of the prepared polymers under both He and synthetic air, and some characteristic parameters are collected in Table 4.  
For the series of the polymers prepared with toluene (Figure 3a,b), a relationship between chemical composition and thermal stability is evident. As the GMA content in the polymer structure increases, the decomposition process occurs at a lower temperature. This tendency is a consequence not only of the presence of the GMA monomer in the copolymer, but also of the lower cross-linking density of the network [22; 23; 24; 25; 26; 27; 28]. A similar trend can be observed for the series synthesized with mixture of alcohols; however, in this case, differences are smaller. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & & **Polymer** & \(\mathbf{T_{2\%}}\) [\({}^{\circ}\)C] & \(\mathbf{T_{range}}\) [\({}^{\circ}\)C] & \(\mathbf{T_{max}}\) [\({}^{\circ}\)C] & \(\mathbf{[^{\circ}\)C-min-1]}\) & **Mass Loss** & **Rm** **\# **[\%**]** \\ \hline \multirow{4}{*}{**MODEL**} & \multirow{4}{*}{**MODEL**} & pDVB t & 331.8 & 395–458 & 439.1 & \(-\)14.18 & 82.96 & 6.0 \\  & & DVB-GMA 2:1 t & 316.0 & 373–453 & 428.1 & \(-\)11.80 & 87.42 & 4.30 \\  & & DVB-GMA 1:1 t & 300.7 & 357–450 & 420.8 & \(-\)9.98 & 88.38 & 4.46 \\  & & DVB-GMA 1:2 t & 288.2 & 337–446 & 384.2 & \(-\)8.57 & 90.08 & 4.38 \\ \cline{2-8}  & & pDVB db & 333.6 & 393–452 & 431.3 & \(-\)13.35 & 75.00 & 6.89 \\  & & DVB-GMA 2:1 db & 307.1 & 365–451 & 423.5 & \(-\)10.58 & 86.72 & 1.62 \\  & & DVB-GMA 1:1 db & 279.4 & 361–450 & 418.0 & \(-\)10.17 & 85.73 & 0.79 \\  & & DVB-GMA 1:2 db & 311.7 & 360–451 & 418.2 & \(-\)10.78 & 93.52 & 2.42 \\ \hline \multirow{4}{*}{**MODEL**} & \multirow{4}{*}{**MODEL**} & pDVB t & 309.3 & 299–575 & 329.5; 527.4 & \(-\)4.34–6.11 & 35.83; 62.16 & 4.50 \\  & & DVB-GMA 2:1 t & 297.8 & 290–593 & 333.3; 528.8 & \(-\)4.71; -4.57 & 53.69; 45.55 & 1.39 \\  & & DVB-GMA 1:1 t & 293.2 & 285–564 & 327.9; 520.8 & \(-\)4.97; -4.85 & 60.21; 35.87 & 4.12 \\  & & DVB-GMA 1:2 t & 283.4 & 275–577 & 327.5; 516.8 & \(-\)5.81; -4.08 & 68.60; 28.49 & 3.28 \\ \cline{2-8}  & & pDVB db & 308.5 & 299–526 & 343.0; 497.8 & \(-\)6.54; -9.07 & 44.33; 51.63 & 5.28 \\  & & DVB-GMA 2:1 db & 303.8 & 303–543 & 342.9; 511.7 & \(-\)7.86; -5.77 & 57.98; 39.54 & 2.86 \\ \cline{2-8}  & & DVB-GMA 1:1 db & 229.6 & 302–536 & 349.9; 507.6 & \(-\)7.69; -5.39 & 64.92; 34.88 & 0 \\  & & DVB-GMA 1:2 db & 301.9 & 307–531 & 351.0; 506.8 & \(-\)9.20; -4.66 & 69.12; 27.42 & 3.78 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 4: The summary of the thermal analysis data of the studied polymers. A comparison of the data collected for both series under the He atmosphere shows that although decomposition occurs in the same temperature ranges (T\({}_{\text{range}}\) and T\({}_{\text{max}}\)) for polymers with the same composition, the course of the processes varies. The decomposition rate values (DR in Table 4 and Figure 4a,c) for DVB-GMA t copolymers decrease, while for DVB-GMA db they remain almost unchanged and amount to approximately 10 \({}^{\circ}\)C/min. Some differences are also visible for the analyses performed under synthetic air. Initial decomposition temperatures (T\({}_{2\%}\)) and T\({}_{\text{range}}\) values gradually decrease, with nearly constant T\({}_{\text{max}}\) (\(\sim\)330 and \(\sim\)520 \({}^{\circ}\)C) and DR in the range of \(-\)4 to \(-\)6 \({}^{\circ}\)C min\({}^{-1}\) for both main decomposition steps in case of the series prepared with toluene.