Structural variations of polystyrene under the effect of electric discharges

✍ Scribed by S.A. Abasov; M.A. Bagirov; V.P. Malin; E.Y. Volchenkov

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1971
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 320 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0014-3057
• DOI: 10.1016/0014-3057(71)90119-4

✦ Synopsis

An investigation has been made of effects on polystyrene films of exposure to electrical discharges in air, oxygen and nitrogen. By i.r. spectroscopy, many oxygen-containing groups and compounds (C---O, C--O--C, etc.) were found in polystyrene film after exposure to electrical discharges in air. End-groups were also found to increase in number.

Measurements of molecular weight revealed that crosslinking occurred simultaneously with degradation. These processes were accelerated by oxygen.

A study has been made of a gel-fraction resulting from crosslinking; the variation of gel-fraction with time was followed. The gel-fraction was found to consist mainly of polystyrene molecules linked by etheric or keto-etheric bridges ; it has practically the same composition as the gel-fraction obtained when polysytrene is kept in pure ozone.