Premium
Radiation crosslinking of polyethylene with electron beam at different temperatures
Author(s) -
Qu Baojun,
Rårby Bengt
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
polymer engineering and science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.503
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1548-2634
pISSN - 0032-3888
DOI - 10.1002/pen.760351406
Subject(s) - low density polyethylene , materials science , polyethylene , high density polyethylene , irradiation , fourier transform infrared spectroscopy , melting point , electron beam processing , atmospheric temperature range , analytical chemistry (journal) , polymer chemistry , composite material , chemical engineering , organic chemistry , chemistry , thermodynamics , physics , nuclear physics , engineering
The effect of temperature over the range −196 to 150°C on the crosslinking of polyethylenes irradiated by electron beam has been investigated on the basis of gel content determination and Fourier transform infra‐red (FTIR) spectroscopy. The crosslinking efficiency increases significantly with increasing irradiation does and at elevated irradiation temperature. The crosslinking rates of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and low density polyethylene (LDPE) samples above the melting point ( T M ) are much higher than those below T m . The FTIR data give positive evidence: (i) that trans‐vinylene double bonds in cross linked HDPE and LDPE samples increase with increasing irradiation dose temperature (ii) that vinyl double bonds in HDPE decrease rapidly with increasing irradiation dose and temperature, and (iii) vinylidene groups in LDPE decrease slowly with increasing temperature at the lower dose and are almost independent of the irradiation temperature at above room temperature and the higher dose of more than 100 kGy. Gas bubbles are observed in LDPE samples irradiated at 100 and 150°C with high dose (200 to 250 kGy). The size of the bubbles increases gradually at high temperatures.