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Degradation of polymer coating systems studied by positron annihilation spectroscopy. II. Correlation with free radical formation

✍ Scribed by H. Cao; Y. He; R. Zhang; J.-P. Yuan; T. C. Sandreczki; Y. C. Jean; B. Nielsen


Publisher
John Wiley and Sons
Year
1999
Tongue
English
Weight
489 KB
Volume
37
Category
Article
ISSN
0887-6266

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✦ Synopsis


The photo-degradation of polymer coating systems due to irradiation by UV and Xenon light sources is studied using positron annihilation spectroscopy and electron spin resonance (ESR). Doppler broadened spectra of positron annihilation, as a function of slow positron implantation energy and ESR spectra, are measured in two types of polyurethane which were exposed, ex situ, to UV irradiation for up to 800 h. The UV irradiation systematically decreases the S parameter as a function of exposure duration and increases the ESR signals. Thus, significant S parameter decrease is correlated with the ESR signal increase resulting from photo-degradation of polymers due to UV irradiation. Parallel in situ positron annihilation and ESR experiments are performed as a function of Xenon light exposure for up to 100 min. These results show that the photo-degradation of the polyurethane coatings involves initial free-radical formation, which is correlated with the subnanometer defects detected by positron annihilation spectroscopy.