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Rapid assessment of weathering stability from exposure of polymer films. II. The effectiveness of different regions of the solar spectrum in degrading an ABS terpolymer
Author(s) -
Davis A.,
Gordon D.
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.1974.070180415
Subject(s) - degradation (telecommunications) , polymer , materials science , weathering , copolymer , wavelength , range (aeronautics) , chemical engineering , composite material , optoelectronics , telecommunications , geomorphology , computer science , engineering , geology
A simple and rapid method has been developed to determine the relative effectiveness of the different regions of the solar spectrum in weathering a polymer. The method is based on measuring the rate of degradation of the polymer in film form, exposed outdoors under a range of materials which transmit different amounts of solar UV. The stability of an unpigmented ABS terpolymer has been examined using this method. It has been shown that the relatively small amount of solar radiation in the range of 295–340 nm accounts for 41% of the total degradation process. Longer wavelengths are shown to be progressively less effective; wavelengths greater than 450 nm (which account for nearly 90% of the total energy of the solar spectrum) contribute less than 5% to the degradation process.